Trapped Freedom
by TheGirlyDJ
Summary: She had been alone for so long. Years, Decades, Centuries She couldn't remember. But then they came. They came and free'd Her from her prison. Well... as free as She could get at any rate. And now She sails with them, protects them as well as She can. She Will help them fulfill their Dreams. Even if it means doing it form a gilded cage.
1. Prologue

' _What's that sound?'_

"Hey you guys, look! There's a giant crystal down here!"

' _It sounds like… voices.'_

"Wow! It's huge!"

"That's what I just said!"

' _But that can't be… can it?'_

"A giant crystal, huh? I wonder how much it's worth."

' _Oh god... No! Please!'_

"Hey, it looks like there's a person inside."

" **WHAT?!"**

' _So they finally noticed me, huh?'_

"B-But how's that-t p-possibly?"

"It looks like they've been encased in the crystal."

"Hey you! Crystal person! Join my crew!"

' _Can it be? After all these years?...How many years?'_

" **WHAT?!"**

"LUFFY! THEY'RE IN A GOD DAMN CRYSTAL! THEY CAN'T JOIN THE CREW!"

"Why not? They're still alive, aren't they?"

"OF COURSE THEY AREN'T!"

' _...Now that's just insulting.'_

"Regardless of the fact that whoever it is that is in this crystal, it is still a crystal. And crystal is always worth something. Boys! Take it aboard!"

"WHAT! You're the one that want's it, take it aboard yourself you Witch!"

*BONK*

"DO AS NAMI-SWAN SAYS YOU STUPID MARIMO!"

"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME ERO-COOK?!"

"YOU HEAR ME YOU THIRD-RATE SWORDSMAN!"

"ShiShiShiShi, Yay! A new crewmate!"

"THE CRYSTAL IS NOT OUR CREWMATE!"

' _...Things just got a whole lot more interesting, huh?...'_


	2. The Beginning

It had been a week ago that they found the crystal.

As soon as they realised that person inside was a girl, Sanji had immediately started ranting about how women are delicate and if he ever found the one who did this to her then he would kill them. Not that many of them could disagree.

She was beautiful.

She had a perfect hourglass figure. She was wearing black slacks and combat-boots. A dark blue hoodie, the bottom black, trimmed with gold had been thrown over her dark gray tank top. Around her neck, suspended a few centimeters over her chest by the crystal, was a necklace in the shape of a black dragon, curled around a rainbow coloured stone. Her hair was black as night and went to her waist, some of it suspended in the air around her face. Her round eyes were closed, her red, red lips slightly parted in a silent gasp. The only thing that marred her tanned skin, was a black scar that went straight from the middle of her cheek, over her right eye and stopped a little ways over her eyebrow. She was suspended a little over the bottom of the crystal, her back arched a bit.

They had placed her in the room with the aquarium, because even though she was dead, it still seemed wrong to simply put her in storage.

Of course, Luffy still didn't think that she was dead.

The second they had put her down inside, he was right in front of her, knocking on the crystal and yelling "Hey, are you awake!? My name is Luffy, what's yours!?" Since he had done this while Nami was stood right next to him, trying to calculate how much the crystal was worth, it's no wonder he got a fist to the head.

But even so Luffy still talked to the girl in the crystal as if she was alive and could hear him. He even gave her a name - Midnight, because her hair and clothes were both black...

Okay in all honesty it was Usopp who gave her that name - Luffy had wanted to just call her Black, but Usopp said it was to bland, so he named her Midnight instead.

After about two days the other started talking to Midnight to. At first it was Usopp telling her his lies, then it was Nami complaining about the others on the crew, Chopper using her as a sounding board, same with Franky, Robin reading her books to her, Sanji switching between complimenting her and cursing the person who put her in the crystal and last Zoro talking to her about his techniques and getting into fights with Sanji.

They didn't know why they did it. Maybe it was just to have someone to do these things with that wouldn't have something else to do or who wouldn't understand the meaning behind it, but they did it.

That was a week ago.

* * *

"Hey there Midnight."

 _'Hello, Luffy-san'_

"Guess what? We just found some fishermen that was attacked by some pirates, and invited them aboard!"

 _'Are you sure that's wise Luffy-san? For all you know they could be bounty hunters.'_

"One of them has really funny hair to! It's like there's a little pyramid on top of his head! ShiShiShiShi!"

 _'That does sound rather amusing.'_

"Oi! Shitty Captain! The food is done, stop talking to Miss Midnight!"

"Oh Food! See ya later, Midnight!"

 _'See you later Luffy-san.'_

* * *

 _'I really have no desire to say 'I told you so' but...'_

The so called 'fishermen' was really just bounty hunter looking to take the bounty's of everyone aboard. They had tried to poison the crew but the only ones that fell for it were Luffy-san and Usopp-san. Right now the ship was surrounded by someone they call 'The Marines'.

Marines that were shooting cannonballs at them.

"ARGH! WE'RE GONNA GET HIT!"

 _'Oh, Hell No!'_

She may not have known them for very long, but these people saved her.

No way in hell was she going to just let them die.

* * *

"ARGH! WE'RE GONNA GET HIT!" Usopp pulled his arms over his head and waited for the pain of the cannonball hitting him.

But it never came.

*CRASH*

Usopp jumped at the loud sound, and looked up to see something he couldn't believe.

The cannonball... had struck... a transparent... purple... floating... wall.

What. The. Hell.

Usopp looked around to see if he was the only one that was seeing this.

Franky, Nami, Zoro, Robin and Sanji were all looking at the wall with identical expressions of disbelief on their faces, while Luffy and Chopper were both looking at it with stars in their eyes.

"SO COOL!"

"WHERE THE HELL DID THAT COME FROM!?"

The wall shimmered and then disappeared.

*CRASH*

Everybody jumped at the sound, and looked. Another wall had appeared and blocked another cannonball.

"Whatever it is, it's helping us!"

"Forget that we need to get out of here!"

"I got this!"

Franky pushed Sanji away from the steering wheel and brought out the paddles.

"Cola engine! Paddle ship Sunny!"

As the ship paddled out the circle of marine ships, everyone on the ship wondered.

What was that?

* * *

In the privacy of her mind, she sighed.

 _'Good, they made it. Guess I can still use it, even trapped in this crystal.'_

"HEY, MIDNIGHT! YOU'LL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE."

As Luffy-san came running into the room and began telling her of what happened on the deck, she could only think.

 _'I don't think that's the last we've seen of them.'_


	3. The Discovery

"Hey, Midnight?"

It was after they had escaped from the Accino Family and he had just finished telling Midnight about it, a frown on his otherwise carefree face.

Midnight didn't answer, but then again she never did, at least not in a way he could hear.

"Was it you who did the whole glowy wall thing? It kept happening while I was fighting that naked ballon-man."

He stared intently at her, determent to get an answer, but as always there was none. He stared a bit more before giving her a sunny smile.

"ShiShiShiShi! I expect an answer tomorrow, Midnight! Goodnight!"

As he bound out of the room, he knew for sure that tomorrow he would have his answer.

* * *

 _'I knew you were perspective, Luffy-san, but I didn't think you would figure it out so fast.'_

As she watched the Captain bounce out of the room, her mind wandered to how exactly she could answer him.

 _'Hm~maybe... Nah, that won't work... And neither will that... Maybe?... Yes that could work, if I have enough energy to pull it off.'_

As she concentrated her energy into Luffy-san's answer, her necklace began to glow...

* * *

They stared.

And stared.

And stared some more.

Luffy was of course bouncing around in an excited frenzy, shouting at the top of his lungs: "WE HAVE A MAGICIAN!"

 _She_ smiled. "Luffy-san, I don't recall agreeing to join your crew, do you?"

That made him stop. "But Midnight~!" He whined.

 _She_ chuckled and looked at the rest of the crew. "Besides, I think your crew have some questions as to how I am both out here and trapped in the crystal at the same time."

Luffy blinked. "But that obvious isn't it? You used your magic, right?"

As The-Girl-Who-Was-Both-Here-And-In-A-Crystal-At-The-Same-Time started roaring with laughter at Luffy's comment, the rest of the crew could only look back at what had started out as a perfectly normal day... Well as normal as a day with The Strawhat's could ever get... and ask themselves when the hell their lives became so fucking weird.

 _'Probably when we started following this crazy person...'_ They all thought, looking fondly at Luffy, who was looking at Midnight in confusion.

"Nee, nee, Midnight? Why are you laughing? I'm not wrong, am I?" He asked, hopelessly confused.

Midnight slowly stopped laughing, wiping tears of mirth form her eyes, until she only released small chuckles every now and then.

Chuckle."No, Luffy-san, you're not wrong, but..." Snicker."The looks on their faces and the way you just casually said that, it..." Snort. "It was just to much."

* * *

At breakfast Luffy had seamed extremely eager to get away, so Nami had asked him what was up. He looked at her, mouth full of food.

"Hm~? Oh, that! I asked Midnight a question last night and I want to know her answer, so I need to go see her as soon as possible."

This had everyone sigh. Nami threw her captain a dry look.

"What did you ask her, Luffy?"

He gave her a grin.

"ShiShiShiShi! I asked her if it was her who did that thing with the glowy wall!"

Everybody looked at him, completely bewildered.

"Luffy..." Said Zoro, slowly. "Midnight is currently inside a massive crystal and on top of that, more than likely dead. How the hell could _she_ had been the one that did the 'wall thing'?"

"I don't know!"

This was said in a bright voice that only Luffy could pull of while talking about something so serious.

While the rest of the crew either sighed, chuckled and/or face planted into the table, Luffy finished eating his breakfast... And the breakfast of everybody else, jumped out of his seat and ran to the aquarium bar. The rest quickly followed him.

When they arrived, they expected to see Luffy, slumped over in disappointment at the fact that Midnight hadn't answered his question.

They did not expect to see Midnight... Sitting on a chair... With her necklace, chain looped around her hand... Making the, apparnetly flat, stone in it spin... In front of the giant crystal... That she was still inside... Looking right at them, her left eye looking like molten gold, the right one covered by her long, black hair.

There were... Different reactions to this scene.

* * *

"SO COOL!"

"ARGH! GHOST~!"

"WHAT THE HELL!?"

"MELLORINA!"

"Fascinating."

"I'M SUPER~! CONFUSED!"

"SHE'S ALIVE!?"

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!?"

She looked at the navigator, an amused smile on her face.

"It's like Luffy-san said, Nami-san. I simply used my Magic."


	4. The Ghost

Astral Projection.

That's what she called it.

The ability to project her soul outside her body.

* * *

After getting over the shock of finding out Midnight wasn't actually dead, Robin had asked her for a more detailed explanation of 'How the hell could she be in two places at once!?'

She looked at her, still wearing that amused smile.

"Hmm~? Oh, I simply used Astral Projection."

"Astral Projection?"

"Yes, it allows me to project my Soul out of my Body and into the Corporeal World."

"..."

Robin had no answer to that.

Luffy, however, did.

"Awsome~! Our magician can become a ghost!"

Midnight simply ignored him.

"But, I can't go very far from this crystal."

That threw everybody for a loop.

"Huh? Why not?"

Midnight looked at Nami, smile gone and replaced by a sad expression.

"Because I have been in it for so long, the Magic that was used to form it has tied itself to my Soul. If I go to far from it, the Magic will act as a leash of sorts, making it impossible for me to move any further."

Her sad face change to a wry smile.

"But, it beats being trapped in a crystal all the time. At least like this I can move around, even if it is just on the Sunny."

As she looked at them, smile in place, the Strawhats didn't know what to say.

To be trapped in a crystal for so long, that even if you remove your soul from your body, you're still incapable of getting away from it.

...They couldn't even imagine it.

Luffy was the first to bounce back from the information she had given them.

"But..."He said, prompting Midnight and the others to look at him. He pointed at Midnight. "You're a magician, right? Can't you just use some magic to break the crystal?"

Midnight sighed, long and heavy, pinched the bridge of her nose and gave Luffy a look that even he could see questioned his intelligence. He was a bit offended.

"Luffy-san, if I could do that, don't you think that I would have done it back when I first got imprisoned in the blasted thing?"

Luffy blinked a couple of times, then sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

"ShiShiShiShi! Yeah, I guess."

Midnight face palmed.

The rest sweat-dropped. Chopper walked up to Midnight, worried frown on his face.

"But..." The crew looked at him, while Midnight did so from in between her fingers. "There has to be SOME way you can break free, right? If not your physical body, then why not your soul?"

Midnight sighed, her hand sliding down her face, into her lap, a thoughtful frown making it's way onto her face.

"I don't know..."

Robin spoke up.

"You said that the magic the crystal is made out of has tied you to it, right?" At Midnight's confused nod, Robin continued. "So what if the crystal wasn't in just one place?"

While most of them looked at Robin with blank expressions, including Midnight, Nami's own face brightened.

"Oh! I get it!" Everyone looked at her, faces the very picture of confusion, though it was easy to see the spark of hope in Midnight's eyes.

Nami smiled at her.

"If you need to be near the crystal, we just need to cut some of it off, and place it around the ship! That way you are always near some of it!"

Midnight looked at her in shock.

"Oh... Nami-san? I can already move around on the ship remember? It's moving around OFF of it that's the problem."

Nami slumped.

"And on top of that how would you even cut the crystal?! It's harder than Sea stone and protected by Magic, for crying out loud!"

Midnight sighed in frustration, as the entire crew slumped in defeat.

"...Unless?"

They looked up at Midnight's frowning face.

"Unless, what?"

Midnight didn't answer, instead she stood up, clicked her fingers making the chair she had been sitting on, and the jaws of the others, disappear into the floor, turned around to look at the crystal with her body inside it, which was still weird as hell, hand on her chin and frown still firmly in place.

After a bit, a smirk made it's way onto her face, and she turned to the Strawhats.

"Okay." They looked at her shoving her she had their full attention. "I think I might have a way to make it so that I can move of the ship."

Their faces began to brighten.

"How?"

She smirked.

"You'll see... Though I probably won't be able to do anything for awhile after I'm done."

"Huh? Why not? Is it dangerous!? SOMEBODY CALL A DOCTOR!"

"YOU ARE THE DOCTOR, IDIOT!"

She smiled reassuringly at the reindeer.

"No, Chopper-san, it isn't dangerous. It's just going to take a lot out of my energy, whether it's a success or not. I just won't be able to stay in the Corporeal World until I get that energy back."

Without another word she turned back to the crystal, left hand out in front of her, right hand holding her necklace a little out in front of her chest, palm facing up, the decorative piece laying on it.

While Midnight concentrated, eyes closed, her necklace began to float, stone spinning, dragon staying still. As the stone started spinning faster and faster, something started happening to the crystal.

Small pieces of it started to float of, ten in total, and spin around in the air, somehow getting small pieces of string tied to their ends, turning into necklaces.

While this was happening, Midnight could feel her energy rapidly draining, but she kept pushing until all ten pieces of crystal had been turned into a necklace.

When they were, floating over to each member of the crew and placing themselves around their necks, the two left over pieces hanging from two small hooks that had appeared on the crystal near the bottom, Midnight immediately stopped what she was doing. Panting, with cold sweat dripping down her face, she turned around, looking at the shocked faces of the people who saved her.

She smiled.

"I'm glad it worked..."

Then her knees gave out, letting her fall to the floor. Luffy, who was closes, tried to catch her but as she fell, she became less and less visibly, until just as Luffy would have caught her, she disappeared entirely, going back into her body.

The rest of the crew could only stared at the spot she disappeared from, minds playing what just happened on repeat, and wait for Midnight to regain her energy so that they could talk again.

They still had a lot of questions, after all.


	5. The Triangle

They didn't see Midnight for three days.

Okay well that's not really true. They did see her, inside the crystal. It was her soul they didn't see. And that made them worry.

Even though they had only found her about two weeks ago, and had only know that she was even alive for about three days, it still felt like she had been a part of the crew since the beginning. And as the good crew that they were, they worried. Even if she had told them not to, had told them that she would be fine, they still worried.

They still talked to her, still went to her crystal, her prison, whenever they needed to get away from each other. When they needed someone who would listen, just listen, they went to her, just like before, but this time…

They knew.

They knew she was alive inside the precious material that surrounded her, that kept her from her freedom.

And it killed them to be unable to help her.

* * *

As Nami looked at the young woman inside the crystal, the same crystal as the one that rested lightly on her chest, she could feel the guilt building up.

Guilt, because she had wanted to sell the crystal, not ones even considering the, albeit very slim, possibility that the person trapped inside might still be alive.

Guilt, because she couldn't do anything.

And guilt, because it was her understanding Robin, her words, that made Midnight exhaust herself so that she had no choice, but to go back to her body, her prison.

Nami knew she shouldn't feel guilty about any of these things, there was no way she could have know, but that still didn't stop it from eating her up.

But just like the rest of the crew, all she could do, was wait for Midnight to gain enough energy to move her soul out of her body.

Then the storm came.

* * *

 _'I wonder how long I've been asleep.'_

She could hear Nami-san yelling instructions to the crew, making them run around on the deck to make sure the ship would survive the oncoming storm.

 _'Hm~ Well my Core's recharged, so.'_

She began to concentrate, looking for the door inside her mind that would allow her to leave her Body.

 _'Where was it again? Oh right, there it is.'_

It was a simple wooden door, painted a light green colour, looking so out of place in the mesmerising Forest that made up her Mindscape, the place she had first discovered so long ago, back when she had first started her training at the Temple.

As she opened the door, the sounds of the outside World became clearer, the light pouring out blinding, as she stepped out of her mind and into the Corporeal World.

* * *

"Well, this looks like quite the party, won't you say?"

"ARGHHHHH~!"

"Midnight! You're back!"

As Usopp clung to the mast, courtesy of Midnight materialising right behind him, thereby scaring the ever loving shit out of him, the rest of the crew all looked at her, happy to see her again.

Said magic user chuckled, her one visible eye gleaming with mischeif.

"Yes Luffy-san I am back. I told you I would be, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but you were gone for three days! We were starting to worry."

She blinked.

"Three days, huh? I thought I would be out of it a bit longer, to be honest. I've never done that spell before."

"Wha-? You know what, nevermind, we have more important things to do. Like making sure we don't sink!"

At the reminder of their current predicament, the Strawhats started to run around again, Nami shouting orders.

"Is there anything that I can assist with, Nami-san?"

The navigator looked at the Mage.

"If you can somehow make sure that the lightning doesn't hit us, then that would be great."

Midnight smirked.

"I have just the thing, Nami-san."

* * *

As Midnight jumped away from Nami-san, she pulled at her necklace, breaking it and making the chain wrap around her hand, so that the decorative piece was hanging from her fingers.

She landed on the figurehead. Standing up, she held the necklace out in front of her, arm straight, piece swaying slightly before becoming still.

" **Colour Shift, Light Blue!** "

As those words came out of her mouth, she made the stone in her necklace spin, with it changing colour from the rainbow it had been before to an electric blue.

As the now blue stone began to spin faster and faster, it began to glow, forming what looked like a blue bubble around the necklace, encasing her hand.

" **Lightning magic...** " She commanded, the necklace in her hand starting to shoot sparks. " **Lightning Shield!** "

As she yelled, the blue bubble got sucked into the stone, that came to a standstill, before she slammed her left hand, palm first, into the lion figurehead she was standing on, right hand clamped onto her left forearm, necklace still around it.

Electric blue light poured from the stone, traveling down her arm and into the wood below her, transferring to it and making the lion head light up like a bright blue light bulb.

As the light on the figurehead began to expand to the rest of the Sunny, covering the rest of the ship, she heard Franky-san remind Nami-san of the paddlers.

"Oh, right! Hoist the sails!"

"Right!"

She jumped of the figurehead, making her necklace unravel from around her hand and return to her neck, the stone already back to it's ordinary colour.

"Cola engine, paddle ship Sunny!"

As they once again used the paddles to get out of a sticky situation, she looked up, watching the lightning still flashing around them hit the shield she had made around the Sunny with a satisfied smirk.

* * *

"What exactly is the Florian Triangle?"

"WILL YOU STOP DOING THAT?"

They had escaped from the storm, whatever Midnight had done to the ship keeping the lightning from hitting them, and were in the process of scaring Usopp with ghost stories of the Florian Triangle, when Midnight materialised behind him, once again making him jump up to cling to the mast.

Midnight gave him an innocent smile that wouldn't fool a horse.

"Hm~? I simply asked a question, Usopp-san. There's nothing wrong with that, is there?"

"There is something wrong with it when you ask it while appearing behind me without any warning!"

Everyone was to busy laughing at Usopp's terror, that they didn't notice the ship floating behind them, very slowly coming up to them.

Well... At least until it did.


	6. The Skeleton

"Excuse me Miss, but may I see your panties?"

She blinked, completely stupefied by the… eight foot tall skeleton's question.

Then she smiled. It really had been to long since she had met a man… Skeleton… Person… Whatever, with manners.

Sanji-san didn't count. She had seen him try to look at Nami-san in the shower back when she first came to the ship.

"Ah, I'm afraid I must decline…?"

"Brook, Miss. My name is Brook."

"Brook-san, then."

"HOW THE HELL CAN YOU BE SO CALM ABOUT THIS?!"

She looked at the navigator who, along with everyone that wasn't Luffy-san, where looking at her as if she had just told them that she was actually a Seaking.

"That's quite simple, Nami-san. Brook-san here is nowhere near as scary as some of the other things that I have seen. Besides he has incredible manners. I don't think I have ever met a man polite and/or brave enough to actually ASK if they can see my undergarments. It is quite refreshing, I must say."

They looked at her, completely disbelief colouring their faces.

"And Usopp-san, please do put away that ridiculous outfit. None of what you have on is going to affect Brook-san, anyway."

Usopp-san looked at his outfit, consisting of: A necklace made of garlic, A purple cape, a wide brim purple hat, a golden cross and some sort of flag attached to his back.

He didn't seem to be able to see what was wrong with it.

* * *

After she had chatted a bit with Brook, Midnight told them she was going to sleep for a bit, since she pretty much came right as she had enough energy to do so, and while she still wasn't even close to being drained like she had when she made the necklaces, she had this feeling she would need all the energy she could get very soon.

Luffy pouted but complied, allowing her to fade away like before, although not quite as worry inducing as the first time.

This, for some reason, freaked Brook, the walking, talking skeleton, out and made him faint - How the hell does a skeleton faint!?

After they (Luffy) had revived him with a bucket of water, Brook pretty much invited himself to dinner, Luffy agreeing almost immediately.

When they were done eating, Brook had told them of how he became a skeleton - By eating a Devil Fruit, dying, his soul coming back from the nether world and then getting lost in the fog like an idiot, before finally finding his body after a year, nothing more than bones.

Although he still had his afro, for some reason.

* * *

"Okay, so, you're not a ghost or anything?"

"Oh, goodness no! I hate ghosts, if I saw one I would scream my lungs out if I had any."

"Is that why you fainted when Midnight went back to her body? Because you thought she was a ghost?"

"You mean she isn't?"

"Well to be honest, we don't really know WHAT she is, we haven't had a chance to ask. We do, however, know that she is not, in fact, dead. Her body is trapped inside a crystal we found inside a cave on an uninhabited island, but she is still very much alive."

"Oh, what a relief!"

"Have you looked in a mirror recently? How can you be afraid of ghost?"

"NO, no mirrors!"

And that's when Brook told them of how his shadow had been stolen while he drifted around in the fog.

* * *

"I hate to say it, but your life sure does suck."

"Even so I'm so happy to have it, YoHoHoHo!"

"Where the hell does this optimism come from?!"

Brook's laughter slowly came to a stop, his mood becoming somber.

"You cannot even imagine how lonely I felt, drifting in this dark world of mine, my companions long since dead."

He looked at Luffy.

"That's why I was so happy when you asked me to join your crew. You've given my live meaning again, YoHoHoHo!"

"ShiShiShiShi!"

"But even so, I must decline."

"EH! But why?!"

"As I said before, since my shadow was stolen, I can no longer come in contact with sunlight. Only the fog that surrounds this sea keeps me save."

"If you need your shadow then we'll get it back! You said it was stolen, right? Who was it?"

"I'm afraid I cannot tell you. We've only just meet, you see, and I cannot ask you to throw your life away for something that is nearly impossible."

"Even so you've got nothing to lose, so you can that least tell us the guys name."

"No, it's best that I don't, besides I doubt I could find him anyway." He gave a sad 'YoHoHoHo'.

"But, I have decided that if I do find him, I will fight him to the death for my shadow. I don't know when my second life will end but I am willing to wait for it for the rest of my days."

A silence stretched across the room.

"But enough of that."

Brook turned around, walking to where he had put a violin case.

"Why don't I sing you a song?"

He opened the violin case, pulling out a worn violin.

"I play quite a lot of instruments, you know."

He put the bow to the violin, ignoring Luffy's cries to 'Please join the crew, we need a musician!' but just as he was about to play he stopped, bony face frozen in an expression of horror.

"Huh? What's wrong?"

"G-g-g-GHOST!"

* * *

 _'Why is it that every time I come to, something has gone wrong? It is getting quite annoying.'_

She watched, deadpan expression, as the crew panicked over a giant gate that looked like teeth that closed behind them.

She sighed, walking to the door.

 _'Well, at least now I know why I had that feeling.'_

As she opened the door to the outside world, she heard Brook-san say.

"This is the ghost island that haunts these waters. They call it... Thriller Bark!"

* * *

"Is it really to much to ask that you not be in trouble when I wake up? It is getting quite frustrating!"

"WHY DO YOU KEEP DOING THAT?!"

"Because it's fun." She deadpanned.

Brook-san had just left, warning them to leave, before taking of, running on the water.

Because why not.

Usopp-san, once again clinging to the mast, threw the Mage a dirty look.

She ignored him, turning around to look at the so called ghost island, resigned expression on her face.

"So... I'm guessing we're going on the island?"


	7. The Cerberus

"So this is the ship you had before the Sunny, huh?"

"Well, it's a bit smaller than the original Merry, but yeah!"

"I see."

After Luffy-san had decided he wanted a ghost as a pet, but at his crew's insistence decided to plan a little more, Franky-san had taken Nami-san, Usopp-san and Chopper-san down to show them what was in dock two, after suggesting that they try out the soldier dock system, since they would need a smaller boat anyway. With nothing better to do at the moment, and Robin-san politely asking if she could, Midnight had gone with them to make sure that if something happened, the three weakest members of the crew would be fine.

Right now they were sitting in 'The Mini-Merry II' Nami-san steering, Usopp-san cheering, Chopper-san hugging the neck of the goat figurehead, crying his eyes out, and Midnight sitting on the stern, an amused little smile on her face.

"You seem to have loved your original ship very much, Chopper-san."

"I did, Midnight! I'm so happy that I can sail on her again."

"I can see. Oh, by the way, Nami-san. We're about to crash."

"HUH?!"

*CRASH*

* * *

"WHY DIDN'T YOU WARN ME SOONER?!"

"I thought you noticed."

"IF I HAD NOTICED THEN YOU WOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO WARN ME, I WOULD HAVE TURNED AROUND!"

"Ah, my apologies, I didn't think of that."

Nami fumed, glaring daggers at the Mage in front of her, who was smiling innocently at her.

It would probably have worked better if Nami hadn't been able to see the poorly concealed glimmer of mischief in her lone eye.

"Midnight~! What is this place?!"

The Mage looked at the doctor, in his human form, her smile morphing into a thoughtful look, as she took a look around.

"We seem to be on the island."

"ARGH~!"

Nami stopped in her attempt to glare holes through Midnight's skull, as she followed her example, taking a look around as well.

"Yeah, your right."

"But how did we get here?!"

"We got excited about the Mini-Merry, and didn't see the wall that makes up the edge of the island. When we crashed into it, we were thrown into this moat here. Which wouldn't have happened if SOMEONE had warned me about it a little earlier!"

Midnight looked at Nami, smile back in place.

"But Nami-san, I thought that it was the one steering the ship that was supposed to look where it was going."

Nami gained a blank expression as Usopp and Chopper looked at her with angry eyes.

"Okay, yeah, I suppose that's true, but I'm cute so you'll forgive me, right?"

"YEAH, RIGHT AFTER I SMACK YOU!"

Nami sat in the corner, Midnight beside her, both holding up signs that read 'Sorry'.

"Anyway, what I don't understand is why there's a giant moat at the edge of the island."

"It's probably a trap of some kind. We're lucky we didn't land on some spears or giant spikes."

"You're right. It's a good thing there were all these skeletons here to cushion our fall, huh?"

"Yeah…"

…

"ARGH~!"

"Will you stop doing that already?!"

"Hey, we're still close to the entrance, right? So if we stay here then Luffy will come and find us."

"He might try, but we're below sea level. Wouldn't that make it harder to find us?"

"In that case we should find a way out of this pit and wait for them by the shore."

"I guess so, but which way do we go?"

"Well…" The other three looked at Midnight. "I suggest we don't go that way."

"Huh? Why not?"

"Because there's a giant Cerberus in the way."

"WHAT?!"

Right there, blocking one of the ways they could go, was a Cerberus.

"RUN~!"

As they started running, the Cerberus chased after them.

"WOOF, WOOF, KON!"

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?!"

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! THAT'S CERBERUS, THE GUARDIAN OF THE UNDERWORLD!"

"WOOF, WOOF, KON!"

"OH, COME ON THERE'S NO WAY THAT'S REAL!"

"LOOK AT IT, DO YOU HAVE A BETTER EXPLANATION?!"

"SO WHEN WE DIED WE GO TO THE UNDERWORLD?!"

"Oh, honestly, did you forget about me?"

* * *

"WAIT, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

Midnight turned around from where she had been running beside Nami, pulling of her necklace, breaking the chain in the process, the chain wrapping around her right hand, stone hanging from her fingers. Holding the necklace a little out in front of her chest, elbow bent, she flicked the stone with her left hand, making it spin.

" **Colour Shift,** **Brown!** "

Nami watched as the spinning stone shifted colour to brown, somehow making it spin so fast it looked like a little glass ball standing completely still, what looked like a brown bubble forming around the hand holding the necklace.

" **Earth Magic...** " She _commanded_ as she crossed her arms, while what looked like small rocks or pieces of dirt began to circle around the necklace. " **Stone Wall!** "

As Midnight thrust her arms out of their crossed position, having just now stopped turning around, towards the two high walls surrounding them, the brown bubble got sucked into the stone, that came to a complete stand still.

When her arms were stretched out completely to the side, a giant stone wall erupted from the ground, as high as the walls around them, blocking the Cerberus from getting to them, and allowing them to take a break.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!"

Midnight turned around to look at Usopp, her expression serious.

"That was Elemental Manipulation. Now, judging by how big Cerberus is, that wall won't hold for long. We need to get moving. Unless of course you enjoy being turned into dog food, Usopp-san?"

"WOOF, WOOF, KON!"

*CRASH*

"NO THANK YOU!"

"Wait a second!"

They looked at Chopper, Midnight's necklace already back around her neck, the brown colour it had been before gone in favour of it's original colour.

"What is it, Chopper-san?"

"That bark... Hey! You! One of your heads is a fox head, isn't it?!"

The... Whatever it is stopped pounding on the wall, becoming quiet.

"I think you made it depressed, Chopper-san."

"Maybe it's sensitive about it?"

"WOOF!"

*CRASH*

Cracks began to form on the wall.

"ARGH, LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!"

"GOOD IDEA!"

"Yes that would be wise, before the wall collapses."

"WILL YOU STOP BEING SO CALM ALREADY?! IT'S FREAKING ME OUT!"

* * *

After they had climbed some stairs at the end of the moat they were in, that apparently lead to a forest, they heard the wall break behind them, leading them to hide in a tree.

They watched as the... Thing, came running up the stairs, sniffing around, on doubt looking for them.

"Man, for a dog that thing has a terrible sense of smell... It's gone."

"What now? It chased us all the way into this creepy forest, even breaking through a wall to do so."

"That monster is still on the ground, if we climb down to look for help it could find us again."

"Oh, Hello. And who might you be?"

"My name is Hildon, Miss."

"Hildon-san, then."

Usopp, Nami and Chopper turned around to look at the person Midnight was talking to. Right there, hanging upside down, was a person, with the head of a man, and the body, of a bat.

"ARGH~! WHO ARE YOU?!"

"His name is Hildon-san, Usopp-san. Are you hard of hearing? Or do you just have bad manners and you did hear it, but chose to ignore it?"

"I..."

"I take that as the latter, then."

"Speaking of bad manners, Miss, I was spying on you. That dog really seemed to scare you."

"Where you now? Would you be a dear and forget what I did with the wall?"

"Of course, Miss."

"Thank you, Hildon-san."

"Scared?! I wasn't scared."

They heard a howl in the distance.

"The night has just begun, but already the shadows in the forest are deep. Soon it shall be transformed into a world of terror, far beyond your worst nightmares."

They could hear something coming closer.

"Might I recommend you take a ride with me in my carriage? We could go to the mansion together."

"Mansion?"

"Of course." They looked at him."Doctor Hogback's abode is just up the way."

"Huh?!"

"Huh, what?"

"Do you know him Chopper?"

"Doctor Hogback?!"

* * *

She frowned.

 _'This... doesn't feel right...'_


	8. The Zombies

"Now, now. We can't have that now, can we?"

The zombie looked at Midnight, who was holding pleasant smile on her face that almost made it seem like nothing was wrong.

Almost.

The thing was, Midnight was also holding her necklace, which was currently glowing bright red and spinning very fast, a red-orange bubble present around it and her hand.

It wasn't the most comforting of scenes.

Hildon had left them in a graveyard, after Nami requested that he take them to the shore, and now that same graveyard was filled with zombies.

"MIDNIGHT! GET THIS THING OFF OF MEEE~!"

Midnight's smile widened, beginning to show far to many teeth.

"You see, that's my friend you're holding, and I would appreciate it if you let her go… Right. Now."

Midnight leaned in over the zombie about to bite Nami, smile firmly in place, necklace sparking ominously with fire from its place hanging from her right hand.

"Hmm~?"

Her eyes opened just a bit, left eye uncovered, showing of the normally concealed black scar running over it, allowing all present to see the tiniest glimpse of the promise of violence present quite clearly in her golden eyes.

The zombies in the surrounding area began sweating bullets.

The undead creature let go of Nami so fast it was as if she had burned it, turning around and running as fast as it could in the opposite direction, yelling as it was running:

"I'm sorry Miss Mage, I didn't know she was your friend... Pleasedon'thurtme!"

"Oh, so you can talk, hmm~? Well then, why don't you tell me where exactly this… Doctor Hogback lives. It's late, and we need a place to stay."

The zombies in the graveyard nodded vigorously, clearly desperate to get the, currently, fire-happy Mage to leave.

"It's right that way Miss! Just follow the path, you can't miss it!"

Midnight turned around to look at where the zombie was pointing. The exit to the graveyard.

She looked back at the zombie that had spoken, still holding a smile that showed far to many teeth, eyes once again closed.

"Thank you, Zombie-san, We'll be on our way now. And please, my companions are tired, and I would hate for it to become… Physical, if you were to follow us. Have a nice day!"

With those words, Midnight walked away from the terrified zombies, dispelling the magic she had been building up in her necklace, thereby making it return to it's usual multicoloured state, and making it return to it's place around her neck, her hair already back over her eye.

"Come on now, Usopp-san, Nami-san, Chopper-san. I imagine you would like to leave?"

The three aforementioned pirates shook themselves out of their stupor, nodding and rising to their feet.

"Yeah, let's get out of here!"

"Right!"

* * *

Midnight raised an amused eyebrow, barely able to stifle her laughter.

Why, you ask?

"Will you stop throwing plates at me, you crazy woman?!"

"Eight, Nine! I said, get out!"

Because Usopp-san was in the midst of getting bombarded with plates, courtesy of a woman with short blonde hair and blue skin that appeared to have been stitched together.

It was quite amusing... in her own, private, somewhat sadistic opinion.

"Stop it, that's enough!"

She, Nami-san and Chopper-san turned to the door, that was in the process of opening, while Usopp-san picked himself up from the floor, mumbling about how he 'hoped he doesn't throw plates'.

She had to stifle another laugh at that.

"We can make an exception just this once, can't we, Cindry? Forgive me if we startled you."

The man, she assumed it was this 'Doctor Hogback' fellow, had a large torso, very thin arms and legs, a nose resembling a bird's beak, slicked back black hair, long canines and pointed ears, stitches that goes all around his face connecting to his widely grinning mouth and sunglasses. He was wearing long sleeved fishnet vest, purple pants, a black tie, purple elbow gloves and a violet coat that appeared to be made out of feathers.

...Not the strangest thing she had seen, but up there.

"You must excuse her. Cindry was once engaged to a wealthy man, but to test his love, she shattered ten of his most cherished plates, sadly he then called of the engagement. Cast out of her home in disgrace she has become my personal servant with a boundless plate grudge."

"Yeah, I don't really care."

"Stop being rude, Usopp-san."

"But..."

"And as you may have already surmised, I am the long missing surgeon, Doctor Hogback! A genius in the eyes of many."

"Ten!"

She snorted.

"Hey, Cindry, I said he could come inside! We went over this, when you don't listen to me I look like a fool in front of our guests."

 _'He doesn't really need her for that...'_ She thought, looking at his outfit with a deadpan expression. _'He's doing that just fine on his own.'_

Of course, she didn't say this out loud. She had just scolded Usopp-san for being impolite.

Doing so herself would be hypocritical.

She looked at Chopper-san, who was staring in awe at the man currently yelling at his servant about how 'He had just explained it all so you don't have to say it again!' after she had said that 'She wished that every last plate in this world would disappear.'

"So this is the man you were talking about Chopper?"

"Doctor Hogback, it's really him~!"

"Doesn't look much like a genius to me."

"SHUT UP NAMI!"

Cindry-san began to walk up the small staircase that lead to the door.

"I will make an exception this once, we will continue this discussion inside, follow me."

"There you have it! Please make yourselves at home."

"I still don't get why she hated me so much, but whatever, at least we get to go in now."

"Yeah, anything's better than that creepy forest."

As the door closed behind them, she heard Doctor Hogback-san.

"Wait!... I'm still here."

* * *

"FoshFoshFoshFosh! It's quite rare for me to receive guests, but my you certainly are filthy! Was it a distressful trip?"

"We were attached by a bunch of zombies in the forest. Luckily Midnight was able to scare them off, but we still got a lot of dirt on us."

"Zombies huh?"

"Yes, indeed."

"What the heck is up with this creepy island anyway? First the weird creatures in the forest, then the zombies? I mean, you live here, right? You've gotta know something."

"So these beasts were chasing you, where they? And, you were able to scare them away, Miss?"

"Yes, I where. It was much easier than I expected it to be, but I am not one to look a gift horse in the mouth."

"May I ask, how?"

"No."

Midnight smiled pleasantly at the doctor, but still made it quite clear that she wasn't going to change her mind.

"Quite impressive, but to answer your question, I don't know much about these creatures either, which is precisely why I'm here."

"Oh~! You mean you're studying zombies? That's a brand new realm of medical research!"

"Yes indeed! All the most, people associated zombies with fear, what if you think of them of someone who has come back from the dead? Then it's a miracle, the dream of all doctors!"

They looked at him, Chopper in awe, Nami and Usopp with frowns on their faces, and Midnight with a hard look in her lone eye.

"Everyone in this world has a loved one they'd like to see come back to life, why that's human nature. Yet the medical community condemns it. 'Madness!' they call it 'I'm trying to play god!' they say! That's why I disappeared from society, so I could continue my research in seclusion on this island without interruptions."

Midnight looked to the ceiling, faraway look in her eye.

"Oh, wow! So I finally found out the truth. But just think, if your research here is a success, then you're going to bring happiness to thousands of people all over the world."

Chopper sat down from where he had leaning on the table, a soft blush on his face.

"As a Doctor myself, sir, I'm behind you all the way!"

"How open minded, why thank you, Doctor Chopper!"

"Ah~! Even if you acknowledge me as a doctor, you won't get on my good side, you big dummy!"

Chopper probably would have been more convincing, if he wasn't doing a little happy-dance with a big smile on his face, while blushing.

"...You should stop."

Hogback and Chopper both looked at her, confusion on their faces.

"Huh? What do you mean, Midnight."

She looked at him, and he was taken aback by just how much _pain_ was on her face.

"Trying to bring people back from the dead..."

She looked to her lap, crossed arms gripping tightly at her biceps.

"Is a path that can only end in misery!"

Everybody present held shocked looks on their faces at how broken her voice sounded.

She got out of the chair.

"I need to take a walk."

She was gone before anyone could protest.

* * *

In one of the towers of the mansion, barely visible under the pale light of the moon she stood, looking at the sky, tears streaming down her face in a steady flow.

 _'Nii-san...'_

Her grip on the necklace tightened as she squeezed her eyes shut and grit her teeth to stop a sob.

 _'Why?...'_

A tear fell onto her closed fist, hands shaking.

 _'Why did you leave?...'_


	9. The Paintings

"... I really should have expected this."

She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, looking at Usopp-san, who was currently on top of the bearskin rug that was in the dining room.

The bearskin rug, that was currently alive and trying to throw Usopp-san of it's back, while a painting of a lady was trying to drag Chopper-san with her back into her frame, with Nami-san pulling at Chopper-san to prevent her from doing so.

Really, she leaves them alone for, what? A few hours? Yes that sounds about right, and when she returns, she finds them in trouble.

It was like there was a curse on them or something…

Maybe she should check for one.

She watched as Usopp-san jumped of the bearskin and onto the chandelier, swinging in it and taking of a candle, throwing it at the rug.

"Take this, you dirty rug!"

"Well… I suppose there are worse way to do that, though it would not have been my first choice."

Was the rug… Reprimanding Usopp-san for throwing a candle at it?!

"Seriously, who throws a candle at someone?!"

Yes… It was reprimanding him… And so were the painting!

* * *

"Are you seriously reprimanding him?! You are trying to kill him! He is perfectly within his rights to retaliate against you, you bloody wanker!"

Usopp almost fell down the chandelier when he heard her voice but he was able to stabilize himself.

There, standing in one of the doorways, was Midnight, her expression incredulous.

"What kind of MORON expects to just be able to attack somebody without whoever they are attacking fighting back?!'

As Midnight came marching towards the burning rug, her mood seemed to take an even darker tone as she spotted Hildon.

"And you!"

Hildon jumped on the spot, clearly terrified by the enraged mage.

"Y-Yes M-Miss?"

Midnight jumped up to Hildon, her normally slightly shorter than average body seeming to tower over him in her rage, more than it already did, Hildon was a freaking dwarf.

"What in the name of all things holy possessed you to leave us stranded in a graveyard, you bloody prat?! I'm pretty sure that what Nami-san asked you to do was NOT, in fact, all that difficult, so how the hell did we end up in a bloody _graveyard_ filled with Zombies?!"

"I-I-I…"

"Oh and, Usopp-san? You've just set the room on fire."

"Eh?... OH CRAP!"

Nami and Chopper looked around as well, seeing that, yes, the room was, if fact, on fire and it was Usopp who did it by dropping the candles.

"ARGH~! WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!"

They ran to the door, trying to open it.

"THE DOOR WON'T OPEN, WE'RE STUCK!"

"There you are!"

The bearskin rug had found them, punching the side of the archway in front of the door, making rubble fly at them.

They ran away, screaming all the way.

"THAT WAS WAY TO CLOSED!"

"MIDNIGHT, DO SOMETHING, ANYTHING!"

"I'm afraid I am busy at the moment, Nami-san."

Her voice sounded strained.

"HUH?!"

Nami looked around, trying to find her.

When she finally did, she gaped in horror.

One of the paintings had warped it's arm around Midnight's wrists, holding her suspended over the floor, arms over her head.

The look on her face was strained, teeth grid and eyes shut, a light sheen of sweat visible on her face.

* * *

"MIDNIGHT!"

She pried her eye open, looking that Nami-san.

"What the bloody hell are you doing just standing there?! Run! I can handle myself!"

She watched as Nami-san and the two others hesitated, clearly concerned about her, before they were forced to run from the painting-ghost-things that were chasing them.

She felt the one holding her shift, lifting her higher of the ground.

 _'Shit, if I don't do something quick, I won't have enough energy to stay and help!'_

She started moving her body, using the momentum to make her swing, hoping it would startle the thing holding her.

It did.

She felt the grip on her wrists loosen, just the tiniest bit, but it was enough.

As she wrenched her arms free, she saw Nami-san, Usopp-san and Chopper-san get thrown into the, luckily unlit, fireplace.

 _'Come to think of it, where did the fire go? Did they somehow put it out or...'_ She shook her head, now was NOT the time to think about that!

She did a flip in midair, using her leg to kick the ghost-painting-thing away from her, as she fell to the floor, landing gracefully on it.

She ran to the others, dodging the ghosts left and right, punching away those she couldn't dodge.

And man did it feel good to be able to do so.

Then she felt herself being grabbed again.

" **Col** -!"

"I'm sorry Miss, but the doctor wants to have a little... chat with you about how exactly you were able to scare of the zombies of the graveyard."

She glared at the one currently holding her arms behind her back, uttering muffled curses from behind it's hand.

"ARGH~!"

Her head snapped back to look at her friends, who had just fallen back into the secret passageway located in the fireplace.

"They disappeared."

"It's a secret passageway."

Her legs were shaking, eyes drooping as she felt her energy drain at a rapid pace from being forced to go solid for so long.

"Hey what are you... What the hell?!"

She felt herself fall through him, panic taking over her mind.

 _'Shit! Please you three, be save...'_

* * *

Yes, I know. It's short. For some reason this just would not work for me. Annoying, but oh well.

I've posted another story - The Ones That once Was - and would like your opinion on whether or not I should continue it.

See Ya - TheGirlyDJ


	10. The Explanation

She woke with a start.

' _Shit, how long was I out?!'_

"A beautiful woman who is also a swordsman just arrived with a bunch of meat!"

She blinked, listening to the sounds of the outside world. Why would Usopp-san say something so utterly ridiculous?

"Beautiful lady?!"

"Meat?!"

"Swordsman?"

Ah, to wake up Sanji-san, Zoro-san and Luffy-san…

' _Wait what?'_

* * *

"Hey, where's Midnight? Wasn't she with you two? Nami too!"

The aforementioned two, Usopp and Chopper, began to panic as they were reminded of their missing companions.

"Oh, god we left her behind! And Nami was kidnapped!"

"What do you mean?"

Luffy was confused, what could have happened to Midnight, she's a ghost, right? And Nami was kidnapped?

Usopp then began to tell them what happened to them.

The mansion, the zombies, Midnight storming out when they started talking about bringing back the dead, the invisible man - Here Sanji became enraged - , the painting coming to life and Midnight somehow getting captured by one of them, escaping and then getting caught again just as they fell through the secret door in the fireplace, then after escaping, Nami getting kidnapped by the invisible man from the shower.

The rest of them were also panicking in their own way at the thought of two of their Nakama still being on the island.

" _So that's what happened after I ran out."_

The crew all jumped in unison, franticly looking around for the owner of the voice.

Well, everyone but Luffy, that is.

"Midnight, is that you?!"

A soft laugh echoed through their heads.

" _Yes, Luffy-san. It's me."_

"How are you doing this?! It's so cool!"

" _I simply found the book on telepathy I had in storage."_

"Book? How can you find a book? I thought you were trapped."

Robin was intrigued. How could one read a book while inside a crystal?

Midnight's soft laugh ran through their heads once again.

" _I am, Robin-san, let me explain. The first thing anyone has to do if they want to be a Mage is gain access to their Mindscape. You see, every person has their own personal world inside their head, designed to fit their personality to a T. My mind is like an Enchanted Forest, but everything I have ever read and/or learned is stored inside a massive cave in the middle of the forest. To make it easier for myself to remember something again in case I ever forgot it, I designed it so that the knowledge looks like books. Therefor all I have to do to remember something, is find a book and read it. Though if I don't have the magical capabilities to use the knowledge, then I wouldn't be able to do so."_

The Strawhats sat in silence, soaking in everything Midnight had just dumped on them.

" _I also need to clean up in here. Really, finding this book took way longer than it should have. I don't remember it being so messy the last time I was here!"_

They chuckled, finding amusement in the Mage's frustration.

Robin decided to address the elephant in the room.

"But, why need to remember it at all? You have shown us that you can travel outside your body, why didn't you do that here?"

They could hear Midnight sigh.

" _When the painting grabbed onto me… And man does that sound weird… Because it was technically a ghost, but also solid enough to grab onto things on the physical plane, it forced my Soul to become solid as well. One of the reasons doing Astral Projection is something not a lot of Mages learn - even though the only time one has to consciously use Magic when doing so is to push the Soul out of the Body or if you want to cast a spell, since the Soul can sustain itself perfectly fine - is because, while it allows you to leave your Body, it doesn't allow you to touch something on the physical plane with anything BUT spells. Allowing yourself to do so by making your Soul solid takes an extraordinary amount of Magical Energy, and if you run out of Magic while doing so, you could risk your Soul never returning to your body."_

They were shocked.

"You mean you could have died?!"

" _No, Usopp-san. A Mage's body relies heavily on Magic to sustain itself. Because Magic is much stronger than what the body normally produces to stay active, the moment one's Magic is unlocked, the body automatically starts using that as it's source of energy, rather than the bioelectricity the Body naturally produces. The Soul has it's own, separate Core, that can't be accessed consciously, even when using Astral Projection, though it can be expanded to hold and produce more Magic if you use the right training methods. So even if the accessible Core was drained while the Soul is still in the Body, the Body would still be able to draw Magic from the Soul, meaning the Body wouldn't shut down because of energy deficiency. Because of this, my Body could have died, but my Soul would still be alive. I would have been forced to stay in this world, never allowed to died nor to live. A lost Soul, looking for a way to move on to the next world out of my reach. It is a fate much worse than death."_

She sounded so… _Sad_.

"Then… Why didn't you?"

They looked at Zoro, shocked he would be the one to ask.

The sound of Midnight's dry chuckle ran through their heads.

" _The spell used to seal me in the crystal is something that was only used as a punishment. While it still allows you to use Magic, it also makes it impossible to died until whatever crime you had committed had been atoned for. You would be forced to watch as those around you, those you loved, grew older and older, withering away before your eyes as you stayed the same, forever trapped in time. Even leaving the Body and going solid would not work, as all that would do was that, when you finally ran out of energy, your Soul would be pulled back into your body before it shut down, blocking you from using Astral Projection until your Core is completely recharged."_

They paled.

None of them could (would) imagine what Midnight had just described. To watch as those you loved died while you stayed the same age until whatever punishment you had been given had run it's course…

Chopper voiced their thoughts, his voice breaking.

"What could anyone do to deserve such a cruel punishment?"

They waited for Midnight's answer.

" _...Sometimes, you need to experience something like that in order to understand someone else's pain."_

She didn't elaborate, instead choosing to wait for the next question.

"...Why are you in it, then?"

Luffy's quiet question was meet with a long silence.

 _"...I did something that could not be forgiven."_

"What?"

Somehow, they felt Midnight's sad smile, even though they couldn't see her.

 _"Maybe someday, I'll tell you, but not right now."_

"Why not?!"

They were at the edge of their seats here, dammit!

 _"Because, isn't Nami-san about to get married against her will? And don't we have four shadow's and a new member to collect?"_

They paused, before Sanji practically combusted.

"I HAVE TO STOP NAMI-SWAN'S WEDDING!"

Zoro had already gotten of the ship.

"Zoro! Where are you going?!"

"I'm landing. We have one more shadow to collect, right?"

Midnight voice ran through their heads.

 _"Wait a minute. Luffy-san, Sanji-san, Zoro-san, if sunlight touches you, you'll died, right?"_

The Monster Trio nodded, unsure of what this was going to lead.

 _"Right, this isn't going to be all that strong, but it should give you more time to run if you were to come in contact with sunlight."_

The three men were puzzled, wondering just what the hell Midnight was going to do, when a soft golden glow began to form around the crystal pieces they had around their necks.

 _"This is a weak Light Shield, it will make it harder for the Sun to hit you. Though if I had been at full power I could make it so that it wouldn't be able to hit you at all, even if it would have been very hard to se since, you know, it blocks out sunlight."_

They look at their necklaces, the glow dimming until it was only the crystal that was golden.

 _"The crystal pieces work as a conduit, allowing my Magic to stay on you, even if you are miles away from me."_

They could hear the smirk.

 _"Now, kick this guy's ass."_

* * *

Hi.

Sorry for the wait. I got so wrapped up in writing The Ones That Once Was, that I couldn't really write anything for Trapped Freedom until I got it out of my system.

I feel bad, so here's a bit on how Magic works to apologise.

Believe it or not, but I enjoy reading your reviews, good or bad, and they help keep me motivated to write. Because honestly, even when I saw how many people followed this story - Thanks, by the way - not having someone actually tell me they like it sorta makes it hard to get motivated and come up with new ideas.

But anyway, thank you to all that have decided to follow my story, you have no idea how happy I am that you guys like it and I hope you will continue to follow this story until I have finished it and the Sequel comes out.

And yes, there will be a Sequel. I came up with this idea while watching the episode were they all return after two years.

See Ya - TheGirlyDJ


	11. The Fight on Thriller Bark

" **Colour Shift, Purple!** "

They looked up, relieved beyond measure when they saw Midnight standing there, arm bent and holding her necklace in front of her chest, a purple bubble surrounding her hand as the purple stone span.

* * *

"MIDNIGHT!"

She smirked at them, before looking at the giant Moriah, her eyes gleaming as he looked at her, surprise clear on his face.

" **Shadow Magic; Shadow's Veil!** "

The purple bubble disappeared into the necklace, the stone coming to a standstill before a blast of purple energy burst from the necklace, forming a purple dome around everybody present, the Rolling Pirates included.

As the sunlight hit the dome, it passed through it effortlessly and hit Luffy-san directly in the face, prompting him to block it with his hand as the Rolling Pirates began to cry at the loss of their friend.

Moriah began to laugh.

"KiShiShiShi! Looks like that 'Shadow's Veil' did nothing to stop the sun from killing your Captain!"

She smirked at him.

"Take a closer look, Jackass-san."

Moriah stumbled a bit, blinking, before looking at Luffy-san.

His eyes widened.

The straw hat wearing boy was still standing there, not being burned in the slightest as sunlight continued to pour in.

Her smirked turned smug as she crossed her arms.

"Shadow's Veil isn't a spell designed to keep the sunlight out. It's designed to make sure that everyone under it is save from it's rays, no matter the weakness they may have towards it."

The Rolling Pirates looked at her in shock while Luffy-san cheered.

"Alright, Midnight! Now we don't have to worry about the sun."

She smiled at him, before being forced to jump away as Moriah destroyed the stone she had been standing on, doing a tuck-and-roll as she hit the ground, quickly looking back at Moriah's furious expression.

"How dare you!"

She raised an eyebrow.

"Jackass-san, you are trying to kill my friends. What the hell did you expect?"

Moriah clearly didn't appreciate hearing that, as he raised his hand to try and punch her again.

"GOMU GOMU NO JET PISTOL!"

Moriah's cheek was smashed inward, sending him flying back.

She looked over at Luffy-san, who had a furious look on his face.

"STAY AWAY FROM MIDNIGHT!"

She watched as Luffy-san started fighting Moriah, his second gear activated, giving his skin a pink sheen, steam coming off of him.

He showed no mercy, hitting Moriah with attack after attack, only letting up when Moriah somehow trapped Luffy-san in a black box he made with his shadow. She stood up, confident that Luffy-san could handle himself as she walked over to the rest of the crew.

"So... What's with the giant red ogre? I sort of got caught up in cleaning up my mind, and didn't pay attention."

They laughed at her.

* * *

" _I see._ "

They looked up at the owner of the voice, the only one of them not looking at him in fear Midnight, who had just raised an eyebrow.

"...A talking snail?"

The voice had come from a Den-Den Mushi located in the hand of giant, bear-like man.

He was wearing a grey hat with paw prints on it that was covering some of his black, curly hair. His eyes appeared to be white and he had a purple bible resting on his crossed legs. He was wearing a black jacket with a white, target-like design on the front, white paw prints going around the bottom of it. He had grey spotted pants and black gloves.

" _My greatest fears have become an unfortunate reality._ "

"So it would seem."

"...No seriously, how is the snail talking?"

"Wow, who is that guy?"

"He's here."

Midnight looked at Nami.

"You know this man, Nami-san?"

She nodded, out of breath.

"Stay calm and listen, please."

They all looked at her.

"During the fight with Moriah and the others, I forgot to tell you, but... There's another one of them on the island. One of the Seven Warlords of the Sea!"

"Wait, so he's... One of the Seven Warlords of the Sea?!"

"...Nami-san, I have been trapped in a crystal for god knows how long. How the bloody hell am I supposed to know who that is? Though judging from your reactions, it can't be anything good."

"The Seven Warlords are seven government approved pirates. People that were deemed so dangerous that the government would rather ally themselves with them than try to fight them."

"... Bugger the lot of them."

"There's... There's no way!"

"What's going on, they weren't working together so why would there need to be two of them here?!"

" _Of course all of this happens when we'd just found a replacement for Crocodile. Losing another Warlord in such a short time is a bad example. Can you tell if he's still breathing? Even in the slightest?_ "

"No."

" _If he is in fact still alive, we will wait for his recovery and hope he can pretain his position as one of the Seven Warlords. We will follow up after such time comes. The dignity of the Warlords would be tarnished if we were to keep losing them so easily. It is critical that this news not reach anyone else. These damn Strawhats are such a nuisance."_

"It's, him. The man that stands just as tall as Moriah. The pirate know across the world as the Tyrant. Bartholomew Kuma."

" _I feel I have made my orders quite clear on this matter. We cannot afford to let anyone else know of Moriah's defeat. This is a direct order from the world government, obliterante the Strawhat crew and everyone else on Thriller Bark. Leave no one alive."_

"Simple enough."

"Well... That's not good."

Midnight stood up, completely ignoring Usopp as he yelled at her for stating the obvious.

"Since the Captain's out, what's the order Zoro-san?"

Zoro looked at the Mage, who had already taken off her necklace.

"Got anything against giant bears?"

"Well there is a spell for warding of hostile animals, but in this case I doubt it would work."

The bear-man stood up, looking down at them.

"OH COME ON! HOW MANY OF THESE WARLORDS DO WE HAVE TO FIGHT?!"

"I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that was a rhetorical question?"

"OF COURSE IT WAS!"

"It took everything we had to defeat Moriah, we're worn out and done for."

"What am I, stale bread?"

"YOU CAN'T EVEN TOUCH HIM!"

"No, but I can still use Magic. Or have you forgotten? Zoro-san, hold still."

"Huh?"

Midnight quickly got her necklace spinning.

" **Colour Shift, Light Green!** "

The stone turned a pale green, Kuma seemingly too fascinated by the Magic happening in front of him to try and stop her.

" **Support Magic; Recovery!** "

Instantly after she had said those words, Zoro could feel his energy returning, his wounds healing at a fast pace as he started to grin.

"Alright, thanks Midnight."

Said Mage gave him a small grin, panting slightly as sweat became visible on her face.

"Yeah well, what kind of Mage would I be if I couldn't even heal?"

"Don't know, but it's damn useful."

"Be careful, he has some strange abilities. I saw him make someone disappear, with only a touch of his hand."

"Wait do you mean like 'poof' and they're suddenly gone?!"

"So, scary!"

"And he can move from one location to another in a split second."

"Sounds like a Speedster."

"A what?"

"A Mage who specialize in Speed Magic."

"These badasses just keep popping up out of nowhere."

The bear-man started to take off his gloves.

"Don't let him touch you, it's dangerous."

Zoro's grip on his sword tightened as he waited for the man to attack.

Then the tall man disappeared, appearing in the middle of the Rolling Pirates.

* * *

 _'Shit... That took way too much energy.'_

She panted as she hunched over, hands on her knees, looking up at the bear-like man with a challenging gaze.

"Interesting. To endure such an attack. Who are you?"

She gave a grin, slowly taking her hands off her knees and standing on her own, though only just.

"Who am I, huh? I'm the resident Mage of the Strawhat Pirates."

Kuma looked at the so called Mage as she panted, obviously drained from whatever she had done to prevent the blast from affecting her.

"Oi, your battle is with me, buddy."

Kuma nodded, turning his head from the fascinating girl to the swordsman.

"Let's get started then."

Zoro's grip on his swords tightened, glaring at the Mage. The message was clear.

Stay out of this.

* * *

She stared at Zoro-san as he fell to the ground.

 _'That bloody moron!'_

Who in their right mind would ever do something like that?!

She got up, ignoring how her Soul protested as she moved, and walked over to the suicidal idiot she had learned to call friend, collapsing when she reached him.

She sighed with relief when she heard him breathing, however faint.

Good. He wasn't dead.

She lifted her hand to his hair, watching as her fingers passed through the light green strands as if she wasn't even there.

"You truly love your Captain, don't you Zoro-san?"

He didn't answer, not that she expected him to.

"I wonder... Would you ever do the same for the rest? Would you take their pain as your own had it been them that were in danger?"

She stared at his face.

"Would you ever do the same for me?... Would you accept me with the ease you did the first time around, if you knew what I had done?"

She looked to the right, staring at the unconscious bodies of the people she had grown to love.

"...Would any of you, if you knew who I once was?"

She gave a bitter smile, before closing her eyes and going to sleep, letting the Magic binding her pull her to her prison.


	12. The Answers

Some of the stuff in this chapter will either be heavily inspired by Fairy Tail or copying it outright.

You have been warned.

* * *

She had already been awake for awhile when she talked to the crew again and when she did, it wasn't to the entire crew. It was just Brook-san.

" _Welcome to the crew, Brook-san."_

"Ah! Miss Midnight! Please don't scare me like that, you made my heart jump right out of my chest! Although, as a skeleton, I have no heart! YoHoHoHo!"

It was the middle of the night and it was Brook-san's turn to take the night watch. Around his bony neck was one of the left over pieces of crystal she had made for the crew what seemed like a lifetime ago.

" _I apologise, Brook-san."_

"It's alright, but I must ask. Where have you been? The others have been quite worried about you, you know."

She sighed.

" _I know, Brook-san I just… Needed some time to think."_

"About what, if you don't mind me asking?"

She was silent, Brook-san waiting patiently for her to talk.

" _I… When Zoro-san took Luffy-san's pain, it got me thinking. What if that had been me? Would he had done the same?... Would any of you, if you knew what I had done."_

She could feel Brook-san's curiosity.

"'What you had done'?"

She gave a bitter laugh.

" _That is exactly what I needed to think about. Whether or not to tell you."_

She let Brook-san mull over her words for a bit.

"...I don't know what you may have done in the past Miss Midnight, but what I do know is that this crew loves you very much. I don't think there is anything you could have done that would make them hate you, as you seem to fear."

She pondered his words.

" _You're probably right, but… I've had to keep this a secret for so long. Back then, the rules worked very differently from today. I guess the fear of repercussion will never truly go away."_

She gave a small laugh.

" _Thank you, Brook."_

"Anytime, Midnight."

* * *

They were all sitting in the aquarium room, looking at Midnight as she sat in front of her body.

"I don't know how much time we have to do this, so you only get one each."

She looked at them, her lone eye serious.

"Ask away."

They were confused.

"Huh?"

Midnight sighed.

"You've all obviously had questions you've wanted to ask since you found out I was alive, hell, some of you probably since you found me in that cave. I'm giving you the chance to ask them."

Now they understood.

She was letting them interrogate her.

Zoro was the first to go.

"What are you?"

They all winced slightly at Zoro's blunt question, while Midnight simply sighed.

"I am a Mage. Specifically a Holder Class Mage, though I can also perform other types of Magic if need be."

Zoro glared at her, obviously waiting for her to elaborate, but she only smiled at him.

Franky decided to make her.

"What exactly is a Class and how many are there?"

Midnight shot him a bland look.

"A Class is something used to describe the way a Mage uses their Magic. As for how many there are… That's a tough one. I don't think there has ever been a set number of Classes, since everybody always seemed to be finding new ways to utilize Magic and there are also some that were deemed illegal, but these were the most common ones."

She took a deep breath, obviously preparing for a long talk.

"There's the Holder Class, which is what I am. This type of Mage is somebody who needs an item to activate their Magic. As you may have noticed, whenever I'm about to cast a spell, I always spin the stone in my necklace. This helps me choose what type of Magic I want to use. What kind of Magic the Mages of this Class can use is entirely up to them. Holders are generally not limited to one type of Magic as long as they work hard enough to learn how to do it.

"Then there's the Caster Class. The Mages of this Class, unlike Holders, could only use one type of Magic, though they didn't need an item to do so. You see, once a Caster Mage decides on the type of Magic they want, be it Elemental, Maker or something else, they have to stick to that type, since their Magic will automatically adjust their bodies to fit that type. This means that if, for example, Sanji-san was an Ice Maker, his body would not be able to feel the cold, as his Magic would have to be cold as well in order to form ice. So it would have to make sure the body wouldn't freeze to death because of the subzero temperatures, anyway. If Sanji-san, who is an Ice Maker, were to try using, shall we say, Fire Magic, his body would not be able to handle the immense heat his Magic would then give out. He would die of overheating before his Magic would be able to adjust his body to the change.

"The Knight Class was also something a lot of people had. A Knight Class Mage has something that is referred to as a 'Space' which is a place for them to store all of their possessions, be it weapons, armor, clothes or tools. They can then take things out of their 'Space', allowing them to swap their weapons and armor when they are fighting. The amount of things a Knight Mage is able to store in their 'Space' depends on how much Magic they have, same as how fast they can swap out their weapons.

"The last common one is the Summoner. Their name pretty much explains itself. Mages of this Class were able to summon beings from other worlds. I honestly don't know how they gained beings they could summon, but I do know it involved a contract of some kind. The more Magic a Summoner had, the stronger beings they could summon."

Midnight stopped talking, both to catch her breath and to let them process the information dump they had just experienced.

Robin asked the next question.

"You said there were some magic that were deemed illegal. That means there was somebody that deemed them so, right?"

Midnight nodded.

"Yeah, the Grand Order. The ten most powerful Mages in the world. They were the ones chosen to set the laws and decided on punishments if you had done something to warrant it."

The fact they were most likely the ones to put HER in the crystal went unsaid.

"What types of magic is there?"

Midnight looked at Chopper.

"As I said, there always seemed to be somebody finding new ways to use Magic, so there aren't really a set number of types, but I can tell you some of the ones I know about.

"There's Elemental Magic, which basically allows you to bend the elements.

"Nature Magic, which allows you to affect nature.

"Maker Magic, which is kind of like Elemental Magic, but not really. Whereas Elemental Magic allows you to bend the elements, Maker Magic allows you to make things out of a specific element.

"Soul Magic, which allows you to affect the Soul.

"Teleportation Magic, which allows you to teleport.

"Mind Magic, which allows you to use your mind for things Mundanes cannot, unless they have eaten a Devil Fruit.

"Takeover Magic, which allows you to 'Take Over' the body of something else, be it human, animal or beast.

"And Rune Magic, which allows you to use runes to create spells. I could list more, but then we'd be here until tomorrow and there's more questions to be answered."

Chopper nodded, understanding.

"Is there any way for us to learn magic?"

Midnight looked at Usopp.

"Unfortunately, most of you are too old to safely unlock your Magic. The only one here who is young enough to do so is Chopper-san, but even that is pushing it."

Usopp deflated, disappointed.

"How long were you in the crystal?"

Midnight gave Nami a sad smile.

"I'm afraid I don't know. I was asleep for most of the time but… I do know it's been at least five thousand years."

Their jaws dropped.

"Who put you in it?"

Midnight winced slightly at Sanji's demand, looking down at her lap.

"...My father."

…

What. The. Fuck.

What kind of sick bastard would do something like that to his own daughter?!

Their rage made the air so thick you could cut it with a knife.

"...Why?"

Brook's voice was quiet, the skeleton being too angry to even yell.

Midnight looked up at them, her golden eye almost overflowing with _pain._

It made them want to kill something.

Preferably that bastard father of hers.

"...I tried to bring my brother back from the dead."

The words were said in a whisper, almost to quiet to hear even in the dead silence filling the room, but they heard them anyway.

"Is that why you stormed out of the room when Doctor Hogback and I were talking about bringing back the dead?"

Midnight nodded, once again looking at her lap.

"Death Magic. The Grand Order deemed the price you have to pay for using it to great, so they declared it forbidden, burning every book containing even a HINT of its existence to a crisp."

Her hand tightened into fists.

"Throughout my entire childhood, my brother was the only person that ever cared about me. Our mother died when I was born and our father was more interested in keeping his place in the Order to care for us. The other children at the Temple found me annoying because of my intelligence, saying I was to much of a know-it-all whenever I tried to help them with something I could see they didn't understand. Nii-san was two years older than me, but he still took the time to be with me, helping me perfect my Magic.

"One day when I was eight, the Temple was attacked by some rogue Mages, those who didn't care for the rules the Order had set. My brother died protecting me."

They couldn't help but feel grateful to her brother.

"Father didn't even try to comfort me, instead blaming me for my brother's death."

There were tears dripping down her face.

"I-I didn't know what to do. I knew it was wrong, I knew it was forbidden and that I would most likely be killed, but I just wanted him back! I just wanted my brother back!"

Midnight curled in on herself, hiding her face in her knees as she gripped her hair.

"I knew there was a form of Magic that could bring him back, so I looked. It took me eight years, but I found a book on Death Magic. It took me another two years to find everything I needed for the ritual in the book, which included expanding my Core so that I had enough Magic to activate it."

Midnight took a deep, shuddering breath and all they wanted to do was march over to her and hug her, but they knew that if they did that, she wouldn't be able to continue.

"...You said there was a price?"

They glared at Robin, who only gazed back at them calmly.

"...There was. There's always a price besides Magic when doing rituals."

Midnight slowly raised her head, looking each of them dead in the eye.

"...The price for bringing a life back from the dead… Is the loss of another."

She didn't break eye contact with any of them.

"I took an eight year old boy and used him as that life. I didn't care about him, about his family, about his mother, his father and his sister. I just wanted **my** brother back."

She buried her head in her knees again.

"...My father had somehow figured out what I was planning to do, because he broke the door to the room I was in just as I had finished killing the boy."

She gave a hollow laugh.

"I was furious. My only chance at getting my brother back had been ruined by the very same man that had made my life miserable in the first place. I somehow killed over ten of the people my father had taken with him before they were able to subdue me. They couldn't take my necklace away from me, because it had been given to me by one of the Dragon Lords, the ones that taught us humans how to access our Magic in the first place. Taking something like that without permission is pretty much the same as signing your own death certificate. I was brought before the Order, were my father immediately trapped me in the crystal, setting the time of my release to the day I died."

Midnight stopped talking, letting what she had just told them sink in, the only sound in the room the quiet sobs she sometimes let out.

At first, they didn't know what to think.

On one hand, Midnight had killed somebody not even ten with no remorse at all.

On the other hand, it wasn't entirely her fault. Her father could have easily prevented it from happening had he just been there for his daughter in her time of grief. It was just as much his fault as it was her own.

They probably would have been stuck in their musing for a very long time, had Luffy not walked over to Midnight and tried to hug her.

He fell through her of course, she wasn't solid, but it had the desired effect.

Midnight's head shot up to look at the young man who was currently laying on the floor beneath her, half of his upper body going through her legs.

Said young man quickly shook his head, jumping away to sit crouched in front of her instead, glaring at her.

"Luffy-san, wha…?"

"Shut up. I don't care what you did or who you killed. Right now, you're my Nakama. That's all that matters to me."

She stared at him, her golden eye wide with shock.

"Yeah, I mean, what you did happened over five thousand years ago, right? That kid would have been long dead by now."

She stared at Nami.

"I…"

"Same here."

"Me too!"

"No way would I turn my back on a lady!"

"I'm quite interested in the history you did experience, Midnight-san."

"It would be SUPER~ boring without you sister!"

"You can get those three to shut up."

"YoHoHoHo! You are one of the only women I know that doesn't hit me when I ask to see your panties. Speaking of which, Nami-san, may I see your…?"

"GET LOST YOU PERVERTED SKELETON!"

Midnight continued to look at them in shock, before tears slowly started to leak out of her eyes again.

"You guys…"

Luffy grinned at her.

"You're apart of the crew Midnight! No way would something like that make us hate you!"

It was like a dam had broken. Midnight burst into uncontrollable sobs as she babble thank you over and over.

When she finally got her sobs under control, after both Chopper and Usopp had tried to hug her along with Luffy, all three attempts resulting in them falling straight through her, the sun was setting on the horizon.

"You know, you still haven't asked your question, Luffy-san."

Luffy blinked from his position under her, before smiling brightly.

"ShiShiShiShi! What's your name, Midnight?"

Midnight smiled at the Captain, warm and welcoming despite the tears stains on her face.

"It's Skylar, Luffy-san."

Midni - no, Skylar looked at the rest of the crew, smile still in place.

"Celeste D. Skylar."

* * *

Please tell me what you think, I really want to know.

See Ya - TheGirlyDJ.


	13. The Mermaid

' _This has got to be_ the _single most ridicules thing I have ever had the misfortune to witness.'_

She stared, her face flat, at the currents that were currently going into the sky, moving around as if they were alive.

"I do not care how this is happening or why. I just want to know what the hell kind of drug whatever entity commands the Sea was on when they came up with _this_."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing Chopper-san, but really, what kind of nonsense is this?!"

"You expect the Grandline to make sense?!"

"I expect the Grandline to have some Goddamn dignity! This looks like something a five year old would come up with, not a Sea that has existed for almost as long as I have been alive!"

"Wait, what?!"

"IS THIS REALLY THE TIME?!"

"Probably not, but it is most entertaining."

"WELL THEN, STOP 'ENTERTAINING' YOURSELF AND HELP!"

She couldn't keep the smirk off her face as she began walking to the bow of the ship, taking of her necklace in the process.

" **Colour Shift, Yellow!** "

The necklace shifted to a rich yellow from where it was spinning in her hand.

" **Air Magic; Razor Whip!** "

A whip made out of wind appeared in her hand as she swung it at one of the currents, making water spray everywhere as Sanji-san lead the ship _up_ one of the currents. Which just cemented her opinion that this was completely ridiculous.

She dismissed the whip when she heard Franky-san activate the Coup-De-Burst, making them fly out of the ridiculous storm and land next to the Red Line.

* * *

"Luffy-san, you do realise that monster is probably going to try and eat us, right?"

Luffy blinked, looking away from the little window in the submarine they were using to try and find Fishman island and up at Skylar, who looked slightly amused.

"It is?"

Skylar sighed a bit.

"Yes, Luffy-san, it is."

"Oh."

"Indeed."

"WILL YOU TWO TAKE THIS A BIT MORE SERIOUSLY?!"

"No offence Nami-san, but a question like that doesn't need to be answered."

Luffy looked at Skylar as she smirked at the Den-Den-Mushi, studying her.

After Skylar had told them of her past, it was like a weight had been lifted from her chest. She was more there then she had been before, playing with him, Usopp and Chopper, giving Sanji recipes of some of the food she grew up with, telling Robin about the history she had experienced while in the crystal, teaching Brook how to play some of the music that had been lost in time, giving Zoro training tips as, while she herself hadn't used a sword, her brother had, helping Franky with the Sunny by reinforcing the wood so it would be harder to break and helping Nami draw her map by telling her where the many islands she had visited on her travels were located.

She was also present at mealtime, were as before, she would just go back in the crystal whenever it was time to eat. Oh sure, she couldn't eat anything, nor did she really need to, but it was still nice to be able to talk to her during meals.

Although, whenever she smiled at him nowadays, he would get this funny feeling in his chest. It wasn't bad or anything, just weird.

Eh, he'd ask Nami about it later, right now though, they needed to get out of the water before they got eaten by the Seaking that looked like a giant white rabbit with a fish-tail.

* * *

"Who's this?"

"ARGH~!"

They snickered as Skylar scared Usopp into clinging onto the mast by appearing behind him, looking curiously at the green haired mermaid sitting on the deck.

"Hey there Skylar, this is Keimi. Keimi, this is the resident Mage of the Strawhat Pirates, Celeste D. Skylar."

Skylar smiled at the mermaid, who was looking at her in awe.

"Pleasure to meet you, Keimi-san."

"You're a Mage?! I thought they were just a myth! It's an honor to meet you, Skylar-chin!"

Skylar's smile became slightly strained at the mention of Mages being myths.

"Yes well, I'm a special case."

She turned away from Keimi before she could reply, looking at the fish next to the ship quizzcially.

"So, why is there a shoal of fish making an arrow in the water?"

Luffy grinned at her.

"ShiShiShiShi! They're showing us the way to Keimi's friend, who was captured by some weirdos called the Flying Fish Riders! We're going to rescue him so he can make us octopus fritters!"

Skylar raised an eyebrow at the last part, but otherwise didn't react.

"So we're going on another adventure? It was getting boring anyway. Who are these Flying Fish Riders?"

"They're a human trafficking gang. They captured people, then sell them of to the highest bidder."

The Mage went stock still, before the wood around her began to splinter slightly as an invisible pressure started pushing down on them.

" **What?** "

Skylar tone was dark as she turned around to look at them, her lone eye glinting with suppressed power.

Luffy, who seemed to be the only one not affected by the pressure the enraged Mage was letting of, just kept on talking.

"Yeah and there's also these guys called the Mackerel Pirates that's been trying to kidnap Keimi so they could sell her of too."

"They're called the Macro Pirates."

Skylar gave them all a smile that was just a tad too polite to be real.

"Is that so?"

Luffy nodded, somehow completely oblivious to just how murderous his Mage looked.

"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's go find Keimi-san's friend."

There was far to many teeth in Skylar's smile as she said this.

* * *

While her crew was yelling at the guy they had come to save for some reason or another, she was busy looking for the bastards that had captured him in the first place.

So she could use them as test subjects for a new spell she was trying to make.

She couldn't leave the ship, but that didn't mean she couldn't still look for them.

" **Colour Shift, Orange.** "

Her necklace turned orange, the stone spinning.

" **Sound Magic; Sonar.** "

She placed her hand on the deck, closing her eyes and letting the Magic wash over her, allowing her to feel what was going on in the water around them.

She smirked. There.

Three heartbeats, all of them under the cage the octopus fishman was in, presumably waiting for something. Probably Keimi-san.

Her eyes shot open when she felt two people jump into the water. One was fairly small and the other had a tail.

Pappug-san and Keimi-san.

She stood up, canceling out the Magic in the process as she ran to the bow of the ship.

"Why the hell did Keimi-san and Pappug-san just jump in the water?!"

Luffy-san turned to look at her.

"That stupid octopus hurt Nami! No way are we helping him!"

That was not what she expected to hear.

"He hurt Nami-san? How?"

They then told her of Arlong, about how he took over Nami-san's village and forced her to work him after he killed her mother, with Hatchan, the octopus, being one of his top men.

By the end of it, Keimi-san had been captured and Skylar could totally understand why they didn't want to help the octopus.

"Yes, I can see how that would make you reluctant to help him."

She then turned to Nami-san, who was looking at the octopus as he banged his head against the bars of the cage, yelling to Keimi-san that he would rescue her.

Nami-san sighed, before giving a smirk.

"Alright, we might as well save him after all."

They all looked at Nami-san in shock.

"Hatchan isn't all that bad, I'd go so far as to say he's harmless. I'm not gonna hold a grudge. And besides, we promised Keimi we'd help her, right?"

"Are you sure Nami?"

"It's really okay?"

"Yup."

Nami-san turned to Luffy-san.

"Right Luffy?"

"If you say it's okay, we'll save the octopus."

She gave a smirk.

"Good, because I have a spell I'd like to test. Unfortunately, it's the kind that causes pain, so I can't use it on you guys. The bastards however..."

Her smirk turned cruel.

"I have no restrictions about using them as test subjects at all."


	14. The Flying Fish Riders

_'Damn… He's ugly.'_

She stared at the man from where she sat, on top of three Riders who had had the misfortune of being her test subjects.

On the plus side, now she knew her spell worked. The three people under her was proof of that, though it could use some fine tuning.

 _'I need to adjust the power outlet and the…'_

"WHO CARES?!"

She blinked, Sanji-san's loud shout preventing her from getting too absorbed in her internal ponderings, and stared at the cook as he kicked the unfortunate man's face in with an enraged expression on his face.

"Listen up you punk, if you don't take responsibility for this then who will huh?!"

"Shut the hell up! I'm more pissed off about the stupid wanted poster then anyone!"

She sighed to herself as the two blonds started to glare at each other, shifting her position and making one of the men under her groan slightly in pain. She glanced down at the men, allowing herself a small smirk of sadistic satisfaction as she took in the numerous cuts and bruises on them, some of them still bleeding sluggishly.

She listened with faint amusement as those of her crew that were on the base - Luffy-san, Zoro-san, Sanji-san and Brook-san - started to laugh and yell at each other, until she felt the need to ask what was in her opinion a valid question..

"Excuse me, but," The people on the platform all turned towards her, some of them obviously not knowing she was there or having forgotten, "If you didn't want to look like that wanted poster, then why didn't you just cut your hair or grow a beard instead of trying to kill Sanji-san? Much simpler, not to mention easier, then killing a man with a 77 million beri bounty."

They all stared at her, Duval seemingly growing angrier and angrier until…

"Ah! I didn't think of that!"

She facepalmed.

* * *

"None of you are making it out of here alive!"

She quickly rose to her feet as Duval started to fire what Sanji-san said was poison harpoons at the cook, said cook dodging all of them in midair.

She frowned as she pulled off her necklace, letting the chain warp around her hand, as she ran towards Sanji-san and the others.

Her eyes widened as she saw Sanji-san leep into the air, kicking one of the Flying Fish Riders down, but getting caught in an iron net two other Riders had hanging between them.

"Sanji-san!"

* * *

Sanji pulled at the net holding him as hard as he could, panic starting to seep in the more he pulled.

"Say hello to a watery grave!"

"Sanji-san!"

He blinked looking down to where Miss Skylar was standing, her necklace already off and spinning in her hand, a dark blue bubble around it and her hand.

 **"Water Magic…"** He grinned as the same blue light around Miss Skylar's necklace started to appear on the crystal around his neck.

 **"Divers Dream!"**

Sanji's breath got knocked out of him as he was pulled underwater, the small piece of crystal around his neck pulsing with a light that started to spread, surrounding his body in a soft, almost invisible blue light that seemed to warm him and ward off the coolness of the water.

He breathed in instinctively, feeling cold air reach his lungs instead of cold water, and smirked, saying the words he knew she could hear.

"Thank you very much, Miss Skylar."

Her echoing chuckle running through his head was all he needed.

* * *

She chuckled at Sanji-san's words, finding amusement in the promise of delivering pain to his 'captors' the words held.

She looked over at Luffy-san and Zoro-san, the former running towards the water to save Sanji-san, the latter trying to stop him.

"Luffy-san, Zoro-san!"

They stopped, looking at her questionly.

She gave them a smile, winking and discreetly pointing at her still fading necklace.

They blinked a bit, before Zoro-san gave her a smirk and Luffy-san a grin.

Then Hatchan-san, not knowing the significance of her necklace yet, started running towards the water.

"I'm on it! You humans are to slow underwater, you'll never catch up in time!"

Duval started laughing.

"Hahaha! You're right, but you don't stand a chance against the speed of my men."

Hatchan-san stopped, staring up at Duval.

"Oh come on! Even you should know that flying fish are the fastest creatures in the sea and my men have oxygen tanks, so they can take their sweet time making sure your little friend is nice and dead by the time he comes up."

Duval gave a mad grin.

"See? I thought of everything!"

She gave a chuckle, drawing Duval's focus to her and stopping whatever he was going to say next.

"Huh? What's so funny?!"

She stopped chuckling, an amused smile still on her face as she opened her eyes and stared at him in obvious amusement.

"Well, you clearly didn't think of everything if you failed take _my_ powers into account."

Duval stared at her dumbly, along with Hatchan-san.

Her smile turned slightly evil as she heard Luffy-san laugh and Zoro-san chuckle.

"ShiShiShiShi! Skylar's a magician." - "Mage, Luffy-san, Mage." - "She can use magic!"

"She probably made it so the shit cook couldn't drown or something like that."

Her smile turned into a straight out smirk as something like horror seemed to appear on Duval's face.

"Got it in one, Zoro-san."

Duval seemed to pop a blood vessel.

* * *

She stared at Luffy-san in shock, her mouth hanging open as the rest of her crew looked on, voicing their confusion over what just happened.

 _'He can use the King's Will?!'_

Zoro-san turned to look at her quizzically.

"What's the King's Will?"

She blinked, silently cursing as she realised she had broadcasted that particular thought over the telepathic link she had with her crew.

Deciding to ignore her mistake (And the consequences of it) for now, she pulled her focus back to the quote-unquote 'battle' happening in front of her, sending a quick _"Later"_ through her mind to the others as she did so.

"Hold on Luffy." She smiled, turning to look at the dripping wet Sanji-san walking towards Luffy-san.

"Sanji. Glad you made it out okay."

"Yeah, thanks to Miss Skylar I was able to breath and move unhindered under the water." Sanji flashed her a smile, which she returned with a smirk. "Now let me take care of this whiner, I just met him and he's already been a pain in my ass for to long."

Sanji-san walked past Luffy-san and towards Duval, who was glaring at him.

"Your ass?! Look who's talking Black Leg! Until you're dead, an innocent guy like me can't find a moment of peace in this world!" She raised a sceptical eyebrow at the word 'innocent'.

 _'This guy is no more of an 'innocent' than I am.'_ She thought bitterly, watching silently as Sanji-san continued to walk towards Duval.

"You're the criminal here, and I'm sick of paying for your crimes!"

"That's enough! How do you think I feel seeing that crappy picture come to life? A stupid face like that shouldn't exist in this world." She other eyebrow joined the first, surprised that Sanji-san would actually push Duval's buttons like that.

 _'Then again, maybe it's not so strange.'_ She thought wryly, sweat dropping as she watched Sanji-san dodge the harpoons Duval fired at him, and the proceed to viciously and repeatedly kick Duval's face without pause until he finally kicked Duval into a building.

"That a full course of my best techniques free of charge, and it's the last you'll ever taste." Sanji-san panted, glaring at the fallen Duval.

"You piece of crap."

She snorted in spite of herself, unable to hold in her amusement at Sanji-san's last biting remark.

* * *

Skylar smiled as she watched her crew eat the octopus fritters Hatchan-san and Keimi-san were making, chuckling slightly as her Captain got a little too excited and accidently burned himself on the stove.

They were back at sea again, Hatchan-san's pink sales-ship sailing right besides The Thousand Sunny after they had left the Flying Fish Ridder's base.

She shook her head, standing up from where she had been sitting the Sunny's railing, silently jumping down the help her Captain with his hand.

"Honestly Luffy-san." She said with fond exasperation, holding her hands around his injured one and pouring some Ice Magic into her hands to soothe the burn. "You need to be a bit more careful. I've seen people lose their hands from burns like this." She scolded him lightly, wrapping his hand in a conjured band aid with a bit of Magic.

Luffy-san grinned at her.

"Yeah, but I have you and Chopper, so that'll never happen!"

She sighed at him.

"That may be true, but there will be a time where you will get injured and me and Chopper-san will be out of reach." She finished tying the band aid, looking Luffy-san in the eyes to make sure he would listen. "So be careful. Because if you die because you were to stupid to dodge in time or because you got cocky, I will personally bring you back from the dead to kill you myself."

She was well aware that her eye was glowing ominously as she stared Luffy-san down until he quickly swallowed his food and nodded rapidly, eyes slightly wide with fear.

Skylar smiled, the glow fading from her eye.

"Good."

"So. Nami, what do you think? Are… they good?"

She watched with slight concern as Hatchan-san's words caused Sanji-san and Luffy-san to abruptly freeze and stop their chewing. She turned to look at Nami-san, who was sitting near the bow of Hatchan-san's ship with an expression she couldn't quite place.

"Is it… Does it taste good?" Hatchan-san questioned, looking at Nami-san with worry.

"Listen." Nami-san said after a bit. "Don't think I'm gonna forgive you 'cause of something silly like this."

She stared at Nami-san, smiling slightly when, after Hatchan-san reassured her that was not what he meant, she smiled at him and said they were delicious.

She continued to watch them for a bit, closing her eyes to just enjoy the lively atmosphere.

"Uhm, excuse me, Skylar-chin?" She opened her eyes again, looking quizzically at the nervous looking Keimi-san.

"Yes, Keimi-san?"

The mermaid smiled, holding out a tray of octopus fritters for her.

"Would you like to try some? Come on, they're really good!"

* * *

This time, it was the whole crew that froze, looking back and forth between Keimi and Skylar, wondering what was going to happen now.

Skylar stared hard at Keimi for a long time, making the mermaid's smile drop.

"I-I'm sorry Skylar-chin, I-I didn't mean…"

"No, no, it's fine Keimi-san. It's just…" Skylar trailed off, before sighing and standing up.

"I think there's something you need to see."

As one, the whole crew all choked on their food, staring at Skylar as she boarded the Sunny again and started walking towards the door to the lower levels.

She stopped, looking back at them with a raised eyebrow.

"Well? Are you coming or not?"

That got them all moving, scrambling to get up and follow the Mage as Hatchan picked up Keimi to carry her.

They followed Skylar to the aquarium room, where Hatchan, Keimi and Pappug all stopped and stared at the massive crystal placed in front of the small table in the middle of the room.

Skylar stopped in front of her prison, staring at her trapped body in silence before turning around and looking at the three creatures of the sea with a bitter smile.

"As you can see Keimi-san, eating those octopus fritters would have been a rather difficult task for me, seeing as my body in currently trapped inside a giant crystal."

Keimi just stared in disbelief.

* * *

So... Hi.

I am sooooooooooo sorry for taking so long to update this! I don't even have an excuse for doing so I just... Didn't!

I can't promise that I'll update again soon or not, but I can promise that unless I specifically say that I am stopping with a story, then there WILL come another chapter. Whether that chapter takes months or days to come is the question.

Thanks to those that stuck with this story and thanks to those that followed it even though it hadn't been updated since 2017.

See Ya - TheGirlyDJ.


	15. The Sabaody Archipelago

Skylar listened to the excited words of her crew with fondness from within her mind, having retreated from the Real World after she had shown Hatchan-san, Keimi-san and Pappug-san her Body and explained a bit about why she was trapped.

It had been emotionally draining for her to do so, and she had gone back into her body to recover for a bit.

" _Hey, Skylar!"_ She blinked, tilting her head slightly.

"Yes, Luffy-san?" She said, her words getting broadcasted over the link she had with her crew.

" _ShiShiShiShi! We're about to go on one of the islands, wanna come?"_

She chuckled slightly at his enthusiasm.

"Of course, Luffy-san. I'll be right there." She said fondly, standing up and going to the door out of her mind with Luffy-san's excited yelling in the background.

* * *

"These bubbles sure are strange, aren't they."

"ARRRRGH!"

The crew smiled at Skylar as she once again appeared without warning behind Usopp, scaring the shit out of him when she started talking.

The Mage smiled innocently at the sniper as he glared at her from his place behind Franky, before she went right back to looking curiously at the bubbles coming from the ground, one actually coming from right beneath her, floating up through her soul and making her giggle.

Keimi stared at her, still not quite used to the fact that Skylar wasn't really there.

Skylar looked back at Hatchan as he started to explain how they were going to get to Fishman Island, appearing utterly fascinated by the prospect of tree sap allowing humans to travel underwater.

"Wait a minute." They looked to Luffy, who pointed at Skylar.

"Can't you just make it so that the ship can travel underwater Skylar? I mean, you made Sanji breath underwater, why not the Sunny?"

They all looked at Skylar, the question valid in their opinion.

Skylar sighed, looking at them all with fond irritation.

"Luffy-san, while I am flattered that you think me capable of doing so, I simply don't have enough Magic to keep the ship from being crushed 10,000 meter below sea level." She explained, smiling slightly as Luffy slumped in disappointment.

"Whelp, looks like we're doing it your way Hatchan." Nami said, smiling slightly at the fishman.

"Yeah, but first." Hatchan began, making Skylar narrow her eyes at him. "In exchange for my help, promise me one thing."

"Sure, what is it?" Luffy asked.

"Once we cross the bridge into town there's a chance we might run into the World Nobles." Hatchan explained seriously.

"Okay, who?" Chopper questioned, staring in confusion at Hatchan.

" _I don't like where this is going."_ Echoed through the minds of the Straw-Hats, Skylar's voice sounding weary to their ears.

"Yeah, who are they?"

It was Robin who answered.

"The World Nobles. They're from the Holy Land Mariejois."

"Cool. So, what's the big deal?"

Hatchan grit his teeth. "This is difficult to ask, but no matter what happens in the town, you must promise that you'll do nothing to defy the World Nobles!"

Skylar's eyes narrowed even further.

" _I see. So they're like them."_

Before they could ask her what she meant by that, the Mage stood up, drawing everyone's attention to her.

Skylar stared coldly at Hatchan.

"If what I suspect is true, then I won't be able to uphold such a promise Hatchan-san."

She look at Luffy, bowing slightly towards him.

"I apologise Captain, but I won't be going with you after all. If you are in need of me, just call me and I will come." And with that, Skylar faded away.

* * *

" _Zoro-san, I don't think that was wise."_

Zoro blinked, having not expected to hear Skylar's voice.

"Oh? And why's that?" He said, ignoring the strange look the pink haired chick was giving him.

He heard Skylar sigh.

" _Zoro-san, have you forgotten Hatchan-san's warning already?"_

He scratched the back of his head.

"Oh yeah, something about not attacking some Nobles or something? What's that got to do with anything?"

" _The man you just tried to attack was one such Noble, Zoro-san."_

"Huh."

" _Indeed."_ She sounded incredibly amused.

"How the hell are you talking to Roronoa?"

He blinked, looking back at the pink haired chick in front of him.

"Huh? I was just talking to Skylar."

The chick looked confused.

"Who?"

" _Zoro-san, need I remind you that I am only able to communicate telepathically to our crew or those on the Sunny?"_ Skylar dryly asked.

"Oh yeah, forgot about that." And he really had forgotten, to used to everybody being able to hear their Mage in their heads.

"Hey, you can heal, right?" He suddenly said, looking down at the bleeding man on the ground.

"What? No I can't-"

"Wasn't talking to you!" He snapped at the chick, kneeling down next to the man on the ground.

" _Yes Zoro-san, I can heal, but-"_

"Then come out here and heal this guy!"

By now everyone nearby was staring at him like he was crazy, but he didn't care. This guy needed help and he didn't know the way to the hospital.

" _You want me to heal a complete stranger in front of multiple pirates, showing what I am capable of to people that could just as easily be friend as they could be foe?"_ The scepticism was clear in Skylar's voice, but it was also clear that she had already made up her mind.

"Yes! Now help this guy!"

He didn't get an answer.

"Look, are you crazy or something? There's nobody he-"

"Shut up brat and get out of my way!"

* * *

Skylar watched as the pink haired girl whirled around to gape at her in a surprisingly good imitation of a goldfish.

"Flattering." She said dryly, glancing around at all the other pirates around her, who were all looking at her with varying expressions of disbelief. "Really. Now, can you please move?"

Without giving the girl a chance to speak she walked right through her, ignoring the shriek the girl let out as she kneeled next to the injured man on the ground, necklace in hand and spinning.

" **Color Shift, Light Green."** She muttered, watching as the stone turning the soft green color of Healing Magic, putting both her hands and necklace over the man's chest.

" **Support Magic; Heal!"** She watched carefully as the man's wound healed, the bullet he had been shot with floating out and disappearing.

She stopped once the wound was gone, standing up and putting her necklace back on.

She turned to Zoro-san with a frown.

"Happy now?"

Zoro-san just smirked at her.

"Yep."

* * *

Zoro watched Skylar sigh in defeat, shaking her head at him.

"Come on, we need to find the others." She said, turning to the pink haired chick, bowing slightly.

"I thank you for making sure my idiot crewmate didn't get himself killed,-" "Hey!" "-but we really must be going now. Have a lovely afternoon."

And with that, Skylar turned towards him and gave him a look that basically said 'Get moving right now or I will turn you into a fucking frog'

He wisely decided to leave.


	16. The Celestial Dragon

Skylar watched as Luffy-san ran towards Keimi-san, with Hatchan-san holding onto Luffy-san to try and stop him, and failing miserably.

She sighed, glancing around the room to look for something to distract herself with so she didn't kill all the 'people' in the auction house.

Not because she didn't want to, oh how she wanted to, but because it would bring way to much attention on her and her crew, and she didn't want that.

So she looked around, at some point looking eyes with a guy sitting a few rows beneath her.

She crocked her head, staring into the man's steel-grey eyes as she took in his appearance.

A fluffy white hat with black spots, black hair, bags under his eyes, earrings, tattos, a black and yellow hoodie and spotted jeans was what she could see.

He stared at her as well, his eyes looking her over just like she had him, looking for something that could tell him who she was.

"His arms! He's a fishman!"

Her head snapped to look at Hatchan-san, her eyes narrowing in rage as she took in the way the people in the seats were throwing both insults and signs with numbers on them at her friend.

She tried to hold back her urge to kill them. It was hard, but she managed.

Then someone shot Hatchan.

She went from rage to ice cold fury, her desire to hold back going flying out the window as she teleported to her Captain, the first thing out of her mouth:

"Captain, may I please maul that thing?"

* * *

Luffy barely heard Skylar's polite, but undoubtedly pissed off question, to focused on the fact that THIS GUY JUST SHOT HATCHAN!

Skylar seemed to know what he was going to do before he did, because not seconds later he heard her voice again, but this time in his head.

" _Save some for me, Captain."_ Skylar followed him every step up the stairs until they reached Hatchan, where she kneeled down and ripped off her necklace.

Neither of them got further than that, because Hatchan grabbed his arm, stopping him from moving.

"Wait… Strawhat… Miss Skylar. Don't do this… It's my fault. I'm the one, who screwed up… Okay."

Luffy looked down at Hatchan, catching a glimpse of Skylar's narrowed eyes and grit teeth.

"Please don't forget your promise. Like I said, you can't defy the Celestial Dragons even if they kill someone!"

Skylar's eye was starting to glow.

"There was a time when, I was a pirate, a criminal! This is the punishment I deserve, for doing all of those horrible things. Please Miss Skylar, don't help me."

Luffy stared at him. Skylar glared at him.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for everything to turn out like this… I just wanted to… Make amends with Nami however I could."

Hatchan choughed, make Skylar flick the stone of her necklace.

"Alright, that's enough of that. Now lay still and take your goddamn medicine you stubborn moron!" She growled, the stone spinning rapidly.

Hatchan started crying.

"I'm sorry for everything I ever did to Nami and your friends. I'm so sorry!" Hatchan cried as Luffy kneeled down to lightly hug him.

"That's enough! Stop all that annoying babbling fish, before I shut you up for good!" The guy who'd shot Hatchan shouted, pointing his pistol at them.

" **Color Shift, Light Green."** Skylar said calmly, going back to the more pressing task of healing Hatchan, while Luffy continued to walk towards the Celestial Dragon.

" **Support Magic; Heal."** Was heard faintly in the background as Skylar started healing Hatchan slightly, though this time she stopped as soon as the wound stopped bleeding.

She wanted to save her energy for the spoilt brat.

* * *

She waited till Luffy had punched the guy,(Leaving him conscious for her, how sweet) then calmly started walking over to him.

"You know." She said lightly, looking at the downed man with both eyes, showing of her scar and her other eye, the pupil of it slit like a snakes. "I am not from this time. I don't know what is considered normal and what isn't, what is considered wrong and what is right."

She lifted up her necklace, the stone already spinning fast.

"But what I do know, is that I am the only one of my kind left. The only one left who remember the First World." Her eyes bored into the ones of the one beneath her as his eyes widened with glee at her words, looking at her like she was a rare prize just waiting to be bought. She leaned down, getting closer to him.

"Do you want to know why?" She asked sweetly, watching the spoilt brat nod rapidly.

She _smiled._

"They destroyed the World." She said simply, righting back up. "My people got so greedy that they destroyed the World, taking and taking and taking with no thought of what their taking was doing to the World. Not until it was already to late."

She could tell she had the attention of everyone in the room, but she didn't care. She wanted this spoilt brat to know _exactly_ what he had angered.

"The Earth crumbled beneath them, the Sea rose to the Sky and the Sun burned everything it touched, plant, animal, human, _Mage_ , until there was nothing left but Earth and Sea." She stared down at the human in front of her as he seemed to realise what she was saying.

"And Me."

She smiled sadistically at the _child_ in front of her as he cringed.

"I think it's high time I shared my memorise of the End of the World, wouldn't you agree?"

She didn't give him a chance to respond, say the words that would seal his fate.

" **Color Shift, Magenta."** Her necklace span and span, the magenta bubble around her hand lightly up the so called 'Nobles' terrified face.

" **Mind Magic; Memory Loop!"**

* * *

She stared at the man she'd locked eyes with earlier.

"Trafalgar Law, huh?" The man grinned at her.

"You seem to know my name, but I don't know yours."

She smiled wryly at him.

"You wouldn't, considering I haven't mentioned it." She replied smoothly, conjuring a barrier between Nami-san and somebody that had snuck up behind her.

Law-san looked at her with interest, his gaze mostly focused on the necklace around her throat, the stone glowing slightly as she used some of the few kinds of Magic she could do without spinning it.

"Would you mind mentioning it?"

She snorted, sending a spike of earth to impale a guard that was about to cut her in half.

Not that it would have worked, but still.

"It's Skylar. Celeste D. Skylar." She told him, smiling when he began to chuckle.

"A D. huh? Should have know."

"Yes, yes you should have."

* * *

"So, you can use the Fighter's Will as well as the King's, huh?"

Rayleigh turned away from the kid to lock eyes with a young woman with long black hair and golden eyes, the left with a scar and slit pupil.

"If that's what you wanna call it, then yeah."

The young woman smirked at him, before disappearing, reappearing next to the kid wearing Roger's hat, her left eye now covered by her long hair.

"Impressive. I didn't even sense you move." He told her. And he meant it.

She smirked.

"I'm afraid I am well versed in hiding from the Scholar's Will, Rayleigh-san."

He nodded.

"Whelp, I think it's time we got out of here."

* * *

"Mind if I join in Luffy-san?"

The Marines stared at the girl who had just… Appeared out of nowhere beside Strawhat Luffy, looking at them with a smirk on her face.

Strawhat grinned.

"ShiShiShiShi! Sure thing Skylar, just leave some for me to."

"Oi, we're here too you idiot!" Eustass 'Captain' Kidd yelled at Strawhat, Trafalgar Law looking at the girl next to Strawhat with interest.

The girl chuckled, walking in front of the three Captains, pulling off the odd necklace around her throat, breaking the chain and wrapping it around her hand.

"Don't worry Luffy-san, I just need a few to keep me entertained." She smirked, flicking the stone of her necklace and making it spin.

 **"Color Shift, Green!"** She yelled, the stone shifting color from multicolored to green, a green bubble expanding from it to cover her hand.

"What the hell is this!" Someone yelled, the girl smirking at them.

"This? This, is Magic! **Nature Magic; Vine Roots!** "

The girl slammed her hand into the ground, the stone absorbing the green bubble and expelling it, a wave of green energy flying over the ground and disappearing just past the last line of Marines.

The girl's eye started glowing green, before the ground started to shake.

Tree roots broke through the ground, wrapping around a small squad of Marines and lifting them into the air, the caught men screaming out in shock and fear.

"Okay, just what the hell are you?!"

The girl looked back towards Captain Kidd, who was staring at her in disbelief.

"First you heal that octopus fishman, then you tell this fucked up story about seeing the World End and do something to the Celestial Dragon that made him look like his brain was just fried and now you make the tree roots come out of the ground and attack people! No Devil Fruit lets you do that many different things at once, so what the hell are you?!" Kidd yelled, glaring down at the girl and willing her to answer.

"Who, me? I'm Celeste D. Skylar, the Mage of the Straw-Hat Pirates." The girl answered, grinning at Kidd and then laughing at his dumbfounded expression.

"ShiShiShiShi! Yeah, we found Skylar just before we entered the Flordon Triangle."

"It was the Florian Triangle Luffy-san."

"That's what I said."

The so called Mage shook her head, looking at Strawhat with an exasperated expression.

"Let's just get back to fighting."

"Right!"


	17. The Past

_(Burning, burning, everything burning, crumbling, the Earth is crumbling, Why am I seeing this, why, why,_ _ **Why!?)**_

Stop, no, don't remind me!

 _(They're dying, burning, they Took to much and now they're dying, why aren't I dying, I want to die, Please, let me die, I want to see them again, let me see them,_ _ **Why Are You Doing This To Me!?)**_

Don't make me remember!

 _(What did I do, What did I say, I just wanted him back, I JUST WANTED HIM BACK, what's so wrong about that, how did it make me deserve this?!)_

No, NO! Brother! Come back!

 _(I want to die, die, die,_ _ **Die! Just Let Me Die, Stop This, I Don't Want To See This, Stop It, MAKE IT STOP!)**_

MAKE IT STOP!

 _(Gone, they're gone, all of them gone, everything gone, flesh, bone, plant, gone, all gone, why am I still here,_ _ **Why Am I Still Awake!?)**_

Oh God, why did it not stop!?

 _(Alone, all alone, let me sleep,_ _ **Please,**_ _if I'm not allowed to die then let me_ _ **SLEEP!**_ _)_

Why did you do that to me!?

 _(Darkness, I'm alone, I can't move, WHY CAN'T I MOVE!?)_

Why, Why, WHY!?

 _(Light, where am I, who am I, what happened, tell me,_ _ **Tell Me, TELL ME!**_ _)_

No, stop it, not that, MAKE IT STOP!

 _(I am, I'm not, I can see, I'm blind, I can't move, I'm moving to fast, Go back to sleep,_ _ **Go Back To Sleep!**_ _)_

Go away!

 _ **(Wake Up)**_

* * *

Her eyes snapped open, lurching up and throwing up in the grass, her entire body shaking uncontrollably as her vomit vanished as soon as it touched the grass, tears in her eyes as she calmed down.

"Just a dream, it's gone, I'm not there anymore, it's over, Oh God, it's over!" She sobbed, unable to hold it in as she was reminded of that horrible time.

She continued to shake and sob, her mindscape dark in light of her breakdown, some of the trees rotted and dead, the grass black and dead animals laying on the grass.

"Just a dream, it's over, it was just a dream."

"Skylar!? What happened!?"

Her head snapped up, her eyes finding those of her Captain not far from hers, those onyx eyes wide with worry.

"L-Luffy-san?" She said shakily, unable to fully process that her Captain was right in front of her, this was her mind, her safe haven, Oh God _why is he here!?_

Luffy-san must have sensed her distress, because he pulled her into a hug and started petting her hair, letting her cry into his chest as he rocked back and forth soothingly.

"It's alright Skylar, you're save, everything's okay, you're alright." He murmured, calming her down with soothing words.

She didn't know for how long she cried, it could have been minutes, it could have been hours, by eventually, her sobs turned to hiccups and she stopped crying.

Luffy-san gently pulled her head of his chest, looking down at her in worry.

"What happened Skylar?" He question, his eyes searching for an answer.

She hiccuped again, wiping her eyes.

"I-It's nothing Luffy-san, I jus-"

"Skylar."

She blinked up at him.

"Just tell me."

She stared into his black eyes, so full of resolve and stubbornness.

And sighed, biting her lip.

"I remembered." She whispered, Luffy quiet as he listened.

"I remembered what I saw, what I heard, What _happened_ the Day they finally took to much and destroyed the World.

"I remember the Sun burning, the Earth crumling, watching as both man, beast and plant were destroyed in a blazing inferno that didn't stop until everything was gone, until all that was left was the Sky, the Earth, the Sea...

"And Me.

"I remember the Loneliness, the Fear, the Horror and the Pain, remember the time I wished to die so that I didn't have to live, the time I begged to be set free so that I would stop being alone, the time I watched life return to the World and the time I feel asleep and hoped to never wake up."

She took a shaky breath.

"I remembered _everything_."

Luffy just stared at her.

"How did you survive?"

She gave a broken laughed.

"The Mages took too much of the Magic of the Earth and Sky, the things that held the Earth together and protected us from the sharp rays of the Sun. I survived because the spell used to form the crystal immediately ties itself to the prisoner's Soul in order to sustain itself, mostly by drawing Magic directly from the Soul, only drawing from the Body when it needs to repair or shield itself, and I had so much Magic in me that it was able to both put up a shield and repair it faster than the Sun could destroy it. I survived because I was punished." She told him bitterly, remembering the Pain of having her Magic ripped from her without pause.

Luffy frowned at her in confusion.

"Wait. When we first met you, you said you couldn't go far from the crystal because you'd been in it for so long and it had tied itself to your soul. But now your saying it tied itself to you the moment you were put in it. Which is it?"

She chuckled slightly, having known for quite a while that Luffy was far smarter than he let on.

He just liked to screw with people. (Although, most of his smarts seemed to be focused on remembering damn near _everything_ those he considered his friends had ever told him about themselves, so maybe screwing with people wasn't the _entire_ reason for his idiot behaviour, but anyway)

"I will admit I was not being entirely honest with you that time. While I was grateful for you guys saving me from my loneliness, Mages are secretive people by nature when it comes to our spell work. I just didn't feel comfortable telling you the full details on it at that point in time. While it is true that being in the crystal for so long didn't exactly cause it to get tied to my Soul, it didn't exactly _weaken_ the tie either. In fact it just made it stronger."

Luffy pouted slightly at the fact she hadn't trusted them, but let it go quickly after a bit.

They just sat there for a bit after that, the Forest slowly returning to it normal state now that she was calm, until she finally asked the obvious question.

"Luffy, how are you even here?"

He blinked, frowning.

"Don't know. One minute I was falling asleep on the back of a fish, the next I'm here watching you cry."

He looked around.

"Where are we anyway?"

She chuckled.

"We're in my mind Luffy-san."

She watched as his eyes widened in wonder, looking around with even more enthusiasm.

"Really?!"

"Yes, really."

"So cool! Ne, can you show me around?"

She laughed, standing up with some reluctance.

"Follow me Luffy-san, I have much to show you."

She chose to ignore the warmth that bloomed in her chest when Luffy took her hand in his.

* * *

"Hey, wake up Strawhat. We're here."

Luffy blinked his eyes open, slightly disoriented from the abrupt wake up, looking around.

"Eh? Already?"

He was slightly disappointed. Skylar's 'mindscape' as she called it had been awesome, the trees tall and welcoming, the grass emerald green, the many animals cool and the floating lights that represented her memories ranging from pretty and disturbing.

But the best thing had been Skylar herself and the fact that he could _touch_ her. Actually touch her, not go through her like normally, but touch her! He hadn't let go of her hand the entire time he was in her head and she had made no move to remove it.

Though that weird feeling in his chest had gotten a lot stronger when she said his name without adding '-san' behind it.

He really should ask Nami about it.

But right now, he had some meat to eat and Chopper said Hatchan needed medicine.

* * *

"Hold on, where's the girl that was with you?"

They blinked, looking at Rayleigh in confusion.

"You mean Skylar?"

Rayleigh nodded.

"Yeah. I haven't seen her since the fight with the Marines."

Shakky looked slightly confused.

"Who are you talking about?"

"Celeste D. Skylar, Mage of the Strawhat Pirates." Nami told her. "Right now she's probably back in her body, resting."

Rayleigh raised an eyebrow.

"'Back in her body'? What do you mean?"

They looked at each other, wondering if they should tell him.

"He's going to be coating the ship. It's best we tell him now instead of him finding out the hard way." Robin reasoned, getting nods from the crew.

She turned to Rayleigh.

"When we first found Skylar, we didn't find out she was alive until about a week later when Luffy asked her if she was the reason floating shields kept appearing when we were getting attacked by some Marines."

Shakky looked surprised.

"How could you not know she was alive?"

Robin smiled.

"Because we had found a giant crystal, with Skylar's frozen body trapped inside."

Rayleigh's eyes widened in surprise.

"What?"

Chopper nodded.

"Yeah. The only way for her to leave the crystal is if she pushes her soul out of her body using something called 'astral projection'. Scared us real good the first time she did it."

Rayleigh and Shakky looked at them in disbelief.

"Granted, she can't go that far from the crystal her body is in, so for her to be able to move around off of the ship, she had to make us these necklaces out of it."

Nami held up the pure piece of crystal, letting the two look at it.

"It also means she has to be near one of us if she wants to get off the ship, but it's better than not getting off at all."

Rayleigh stared at them.

"And where exactly is her… Body?"

"In the aquarium room."

"Of course it is."


	18. The Warlord and the Admiral

"Oi, Skylar! Get out here right now!"

The Mage did as commanded, appearing besides her crew without flare, staring up at Bartholomew Kuma with hard eyes, her hair out of her face and necklace off.

"You called, Captain?" She said calmly.

Luffy nodded.

"Don't hold back." He said simply, getting a nod from the Mage.

* * *

And so the fight began, with Luffy launching himself at Kuma, Sanji-san and Zoro-san following close behind, Skylar making her necklace spin.

" **Color Shift, Kaleidoscope!"** She yelled, the stone coming to a standstill as soon as the words were out of her mouth, glowing brightly as it shifted between colors endlessly, going from white to green to red and so on, never keeping one color for long as she leapt after the Monster Trio after she put it back on.

Luffy, Zoro-san and Sanji-san attacked Kuma at the same time, knocking him into a building.

However, it (Apparently it wasn't really him, who knew?) didn't stay down for long, soon back on its feet and firing yellow beams at them.

Well two can play at that game.

" **Power Magic; Energy Beam!"** The stone stopped shifting color, now appearing a deep blood red as a ball of red Magic gathered in her hand, blasting at Not-Kuma when she trust her arm towards it.

The blast hit its arm, tearing through the appendage to reveal wires and metal, showing it was a machine.

"Alright, you hit it!"

She smiled slightly at Luffy's excited shout.

"I did, but not were it would mean anything. I haven't used that attack for a while. I'm a little rusty when it comes to aiming."

"Wait a second, how did you do that with your necklace still on?!"

She pointed at the once again color shifting stone.

"The Kaleidoscope. It's something I use when I need to be able to attack quickly and without pause. It takes quite a bit out of me because it needs a constant flow of Magic, but I should be able to hold it for this fight." She explained, before quickly jumping out of the way of a yellow beam.

" **Air Magic; Blade Hurricane!"** She yelled, stone now yellow and the wind picking up, whirling around Not-Kuma and slicing it, the sharp blades of Magic enhanced wind tearing through with some difficulty, but still hurting it.

Then Zoro-san cried out in pain, making her head snap to look over at him.

Zoro-san was standing hunched over, clutching his stomach as Not-Kuma prepared to fired at him.

"Snap out of it!" Sanji-san yelled at him, giving Zoro-san just enough time to jump out of the way of the yellow beam, landing and collapsing on a piece of rubble not long after.

"Zoro!" "Zoro-san!" Luffy and Skylar yelled, running to him, Luffy standing in front of him and Skylar quickly kneeling down next to him.

"Zoro, what's the matter with you?! How are you already hurt so badly when we just started?!" Luffy asked the downed swordsman.

"Just forget about him for now you two. We're all screwed if we can't beat this guy already." Sanji-san told them, panting.

She pursed her lips but agreed, standing to face Not-Kuma with the two men.

' _This is gonna be a pain in the ass.'_

* * *

' _You have got to be kidding me, another one!?'_

Skylar stared in disbelief at the second Not-Kuma she had seen today, the first one lying in its own little crater courtesy of Luffy's giant fist.

In front of the Not-Kuma was a guy holding a giant battle-axe, bragging about how he was the best at keeping secrets and then proving himself wrong by telling them his name, which was Sentonmaru, even though he had said his lips were sealed.

Luffy than ordered them to split up and run away and as much as she wanted to go with him, she knew Zoro-san needed her more right now.

She span the stone as she ran, having dismissed the Kaleidoscope after the first Not-Kuma had been taken out, and she was about to tell Zoro-san to let her heal him, when something appeared in front of her, Zoro-san, Usopp-san and Robin-san.

She didn't get the chance to react before the person in front of them fired something at Zoro-san, hitting him dead on.

"Zoro-san!"

She glared up at the man, Kizaru, as he mocked Zoro-san.

"Oi, Admiral-san."

Kizaru blinked, looking up from Zoro-san to her.

"Hmm? Who are you?" He asked in bored curiosity.

"I have a question for you." She said, ignoring his question.

"What Devil Fruit did you eat?"

* * *

Kizaru blinked at the odd question.

"The Glint-Glint fruit. I am light." He answered, seeing no harm in humoring the black haired girl holding a necklace with a spinning multicolored stone.

That is, until she started grinning.

"Thanks. That's all I needed to know. **Color Shift, Gold!** " She said, the last part making the spinning stone change color to bright gold, a gold bubble appearing around her hand.

"Watch out you guys, this is gonna make it a bit hard to see. **Light Magic; Light Shield!"**

Kizaru watched as the spinning stone absorbed the gold bubble, stopping instantly when it had and then…

He coughed as something he couldn't see slammed into him without mercy, sending him flying away from the grove.

"What a surprise." He muttered, landing on the grove next to the one he was thrown off. "She actually got a hit in. Oh well, better get back there."

He jumped over to the grove…

And smashed against something invisible.

"What…?" He said in shock, putting his hand on the invisible barrier he could feel, but not see.

"Light Shield...?"

"Oi, bastard-san."

He looked behind him, meeting the golden eyes of the black haired girl.

"What did you do?" He was curious.

She grinned.

"I put up a shield against light. Upside, it blocks you from my crew. Downside, it also blocks out all other sources of light."

"That an impressive power little girl." He lifted his leg.

"Unfortunately, since you just admitted to being a Straw-Hat, I have to get rid of you. Sorry."

The girl then surprised him yet again by bursting out laughing.

"That's going to be difficult, considering I'm not actually here."

"Where are you then?"

She smirked at him.

"Wouldn't you like to know? Oh, hey Rayleigh-san."

He didn't get a chance to react before something hit him in the back, sending him flying towards the girl and _through her_.

Huh. So she really wasn't there. Good to know.

"Can I leave this guy with you Rayleigh-san? I'm almost out of energy and I need to go back in before I become completely useless."

"Sure thing kid. Take care."

"Thanks. Oh, and, Kizaru?"

He stood up, looking at the grinning girl.

"My name is Celeste D. Skylar, the Mage of the Strawhat Pirates. Please make sure the others know it."

And with that, she disappeared, leaving him with 'Dark King' Silvers Rayleigh and a massive headache.


	19. The Prison

_She had felt them disappear._

"Zoro!"

 _One by one._

"Brook!"

 _They were moved._

"Usopp!"

 _Her crew._

"Sanji!"

 _Her friends._

"Franky!"

 _Her Nakama._

"Nami!"

 _Her_ _ **Family**_ _._

"Chopper!"

 _Why hadn't she done something?_

"Robin!"

 _Why didn't she help them?_

"I'm useless!"

 _No Luffy, you aren't, you did your best._

"Everybody! Come back!"

 _I'm right here Luffy!_

"Please!"

" _Luffy."_

"Skylar!? Skylar _please_ , promise me you won't leave too!"

" _I promise Luffy. Wherever you go, I will follow."_

The crystal around his neck glowed softly.

"After this, we will never meet again."

" _I will follow…"_

* * *

"Skylar?"

She smiled down at him, moving his hair out of his face.

"Hello again Luffy. It would seem I just can't get you out of my head."

He blinked, turning his head to look around him.

The Forest of Skylar's mind greeted him, the floating lights bright and the animals playing in the grass.

"...Skylar?"

She hummed.

"Are they dead?"

She smiled gently.

"No Luffy, they're not. They are merely being sent to different places."

He smiled.

"That's good."

They sat in silence for a bit, just enjoying each other's company, Skylar softly petting Luffy's hair.

"Hey Skylar?" Luffy said out of the blue.

"Hmm~?"

"Can I ask you something? I was going to ask Nami about this, but I don't know where she is..."

"Of course Luffy."

"What's the weird feeling I get in my chest when I look at you?"

Skylar's hand froze, her eyes wide as she stared down at him. Then her face turned bright red and she turned her head to the side.

Now he was worried

"Skylar? What's wrong, are you sick?" He asked, getting off her lap and gently grabbing her chin to make her look at him.

His Mage was still red, though it was a bit less bright than it had been at first, and she was avoiding his eyes. He frowned, leaning in more so their noses were almost brushing. The red returned and now she looked like a tomato.

"I… I don't- Look Luffy, next time you see a woman, it doesn't have to be Nami-san, just… ask them? Please?" She said, finally looking him in the eyes. "That's just not a question I feel comfortable answering."

He blinked, slightly confused, but nodded anyway, making Skylar give him a small smile.

"Thanks. Want me to show you around some more?"

He grinned, letting the change in topic slide as he bounced up and impatiently called for Skylar to hurry up and show him the rest of her head.

Skylar just laughed and got up, looking at him with eyes that warmed his heart.

* * *

She pursed her lips, brows drawing together in concentration as she reached out for her crew again.

It had been days since they had been separated, with Luffy staying asleep and in her mind for some of those days, which were spent mostly showing Luffy around inside her head and exchanging stories.

She felt her cheeks heat up at the thought of Luffy and what he had said but quickly pushed it aside, focusing on the muted emotions coming from her crew. It was the same each time she reached out to try and talk to the others. Instead of clear thoughts and words, all she got was emotions and vague impressions.

This was the fourth time she had tried reaching out, and she had finally figured out how to send _something_ to her crew in return.

The first she focused on was Usopp-san, whose Bond was pulsing with fear and panic _._ She pushed _Here-Calm_ towards him, smiling slightly when she got _Relief-Joy_ back from the sniper and a vague impression of crying. She stayed on him for a bit, calming him down and reassuring him she was there and the others were save, before sending him a mix of emotions that told him she had to leave to check on the other and focusing on Chopper-san.

She did this for what felt like hours, with each of her fellow crew members sending various feelings of _Relief-Joy-Save-Tired_ back to her when they realised she was there and could, at least to some extent, communicate with them. Though she was at a bit of a loss when Sanji-san sent her a mix of emotions and impressions that almost made her think the cook had somehow ended up in Hell, but she dismissed that notion and sent back a mix that clearly read 'Unimpressed _._ '

She smiled as she drew back for the Bonds, happy she had given her crew at least a small amount of comfort.

Then feelings of _Furious-Hopeless_ slammed into her like a stack of bricks.

Her back hit the grass hard and she blinked before reaching out to the Bond the feelings had come from. When she discovered Luffy's Bond she was slightly surprised, but quickly pushed an inquiry towards him.

The responding mix made her blink again but she obediently sent a shield spell into his necklace that he could direct to some extent. She got gratitude back and felt the spell drain out of Luffy necklace the next moment.

Curiosity was eating her up, but she knew she wouldn't be able to get a full explanation through the muted connection she had to Luffy's necklace because of the distance between them. All she could do was wait for Luffy to somehow come into her mind again so they could talk.

She really needed to find out how he kept getting into her Mindscape without her helping him along.

* * *

He panted as he walked, the 3-guy and Buggy doing the same behind him.

Him and Hancock had done it and had gotten him into Impel Down without the guards realising he was there until he had run into Buggy on Level 1. They had gone through Level 1 and Level 2, where they had found the 3-guy, and were now on Level 3, which was unbearably hot.

He really wished Skylar was there, because he had no doubt that she could use magic to make the heat disappear.

Luffy blinked, stopping and cocking his head at the sudden burst of emotions and feelings not his own, before it clicked and he remembered how Skylar had done the same during his fight with Hancock's sisters, where she had somehow understood his demand for something to make sure Margaret and her friends didn't get destroyed during the fight.

He grinned and tried to do the same again, but this time asking for something to make the heat less intense.

It took a bit for Skylar to respond, probably because she had to figure out what he was asking for, but his necklace was soon glowing a bright red-orange color and the heat went away.

"Much better." He sighed, stretching his arms over his head with a grin as he relished in the cool feeling coming from his necklace.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Buggy yelled at him, panting from the heat.

He blinked, turning to look at the two. "Oh right, you don't know."

"Know what?" The 3-guy asked, looking very annoyed.

"Well, we got a new crewmate a while ago. Her name's Skylar ad she's a Mage." He tapped the red-orange crystal around his neck. "I don't really understand how it works, but this crystal lets her put spell on me and talk to me somewhat." He grinned at the gaping pirates. "I asked her to make the heat go away and she did!"

They continued to gape at him, before the 3-guy weakly asked, "Can she do that to us too?"

He frowned, doing his best to ask his Mage if she could. The responding 'Yes' made him smile.

"Yup! Come here." He grabbed their shoulders and told Skylar 'Go for it' as best he could.

His necklace glowed again, the glow moving up his arms and surrounding the two he was holding onto, the pirates visibly relaxing as they sighed in relief.

He grinned.

"Let's go! And I think you have to stay near me if you want the spell to stay on." He turned around before he could see their reactions and kept walking.

* * *

"Oi, Straw Hat."

He blinked, turning to Buggy and Mr. 3, who were both panting from the heat of Level 4 since they had decided to ditch him in Level 3 to try and escape, which meant Skylar's spell had disappeared.

"What."

The annoyance in his voice was pretty clear, making both of them gulp slightly.

"Think that Mage of yours can put that spell back on us again?" Buggy asked, making Bon Clay look at him weirdly.

He frowned.

"It's your own fault it disappeared. I told you it probably wouldn't stay on if you got too far away from me."

Mr. 3 waved his hand.

"Yes yes, we know, but it was an accident. Accidents happen, don't they?"

He continued to frown.

"A spell? Is that why you are not affected by the heat Straw-Boy?" Bon Clay asked.

He nodded.

"Yeah. We got a new crew member sometime before we arrived at Sabaody and she's a Mage." He put his hand on Bon's shoulder and asked Skylar to help.

He could feel her curiosity and exasperation, but his necklace still started glowing, the glow once again moving over to the one he was holding and getting rid of most of the heat. Bon Clay instantly relaxed as he stopped feeling the heat, giving him a happy smile.

"Was that your Mage?" He nodded, walking over to Buggy and 3 to have Skylar do the same to them. They'd be pretty useless otherwise. "Tell her I said thank you~!"

He smiled, relaying the message as best he could and getting something that felt like 'You're welcome' in return.

"She says you're welcome." He frowned slightly at the next mix he got from her, which was like a question, a threat and a plea all in one, before grimacing slightly when he finally understood it. "She also says she wants an explanation."

Bon-chan laughed, spinning on his foot. "And I assume she wants it now?"

He nodded, trying to figure out how to explain things using only his emotions, before giving up and just sending everything he was feeling towards her.

There was nothing for a minute, which was used to take a little break and argue, before Skylar sent back something that basically said 'Really?'

He laughed and turned to Buggy and Mr. 3, hands behind his head and all traces of annoyance gone from his body.

"So, you coming with us?" He asked them, grinning from ear to ear.

"NO WAY IN HELL!" They yelled.

Just before the ground broke and they started falling.

* * *

Hi.

Sorry for not updating sooner, but I'm afraid the 5000 piece puzzle in the attic have been distracting me these past few weeks.

And no, that is not a joke. There really is a 5000 piece puzzle in my attic, which I am currently doing my damntest to ignore so I can finally get some chapters written.

See Ya - TheGirlyDJ.


	20. The Start of a War

"Luffy!"

He whirled around, face splitting in a grin as he spotted his Mage, her pretty golden eyes looking at him with worry, both of them uncovered and showing her awesome scar and slitted pupil.

"Skylar!" He called happily, bouncing over to his Mage and trying to give her a hug, only to feel stupid when he falls right through her. But it's okay, because Skylar is smiling at him and it does weird things to his stomach that doesn't feel bad and he smiles back from his place going through her legs.

"Luffy, why are you on a giant ship on top of a frozen wave?" She asked, sounding both amused and confused and right, she didn't know about Ace!

"Those bastard Marines want to execute Ace!" He told her, making her blink in confusion. "I was going to break him out of that stupid prison, but then the warden poisoned me and Iva had to cure me using some weird needles on his fingers that took a long time and then when I was better Ace was gone, so now we're going to Marineford to save Ace there!"

He took a deep breath as Skylar continued to blink at him.

"Well, that answers most of my questions." She mumbled, still looking confused. "But, who is this 'Ace' you keep talking about?"

He huffed. "He's my big brother!"

Skylar's eyes went wide before going hard as she straightened.

"I see." She said, turning to look at Iva, who was looking at the two of them curiously.

"No offence to Luffy but I doubt he'll be able to tell me the story properly. Can you do it?"

Iva nodded his big head, though he was still looking at her curiously, along with Buggy, Mr. 3, Jinbei and Crocodile.

"Certainly, but first, who are you?"

Skylar smirked, crossing her arms under her chest.

"Me? I'm the Mage of the Straw Hat Pirates." She glared at them. "And you had better tell me _everything_."

He shuddered. Skylar was scary when her eyes glowed.

* * *

Straw Hat Luffy had joined the battlefield.

In a flying Marine Warship.

With several high ranking former prisoners of Impel Down.

Well this was interesting.

Whitebread stared down at his son's little brother as said little brother yelled at Ace that he was gonna save him.

His son grit his teeth.

"Damn it Luffy!" He screamed back. "Just leave already! I don't need you!"

"With all due respect Ace-san." Came a voice he didn't recognise, quiet and polite and somehow able to be heard by everyone on the base despite all the noise. "He is _your_ little brother. Surely you know how stubborn he is?"

And from behind Straw Hat came a woman that could rival Boa Hancock when it came to beauty.

She had an hourglass figure and her hair was black as night, completely straight and easily reached her waist. Her skin was tanned and she was wearing a grey tank top under a dark and blue hoodie trimmed with gold, black slacks and combat boots on her lower half. Her features were razor sharp and her lips ruby red. But her sharp eyes were a shimmering shade of pure gold that even he could see, a black scar going straight over her left one and the pupil slit like it was part of it.

He stared down at the girl, who felt his gaze and turned to look at him, her golden eyes reminding him of Hawk-Eyes and making him wonder if she was his daughter.

Then her eyes narrowed and he knew why, his Haki alerting him to the fact Crocodile was coming up behind him. He waited, curious on what would happen.

Crocodile was thrown away and two new presence appeared behind him. Straw Hat and the girl.

"I honored our agreement and got you here." Crocodile called, annoyance in his words. "Why are you defending Whitebread!?"

"So this old guy is really Whitebeard?" Straw Hat replied, a soft sigh coming from the girl. "Then don't touch him! Ace likes this old man!"

"And who am I to go against my Captain?"

He glanced behind him, looking at the hat on Straw Hat's back.

"Brat… That straw hat of yours… It looks a lot like the one Red Hair used to wear." He told him, making the brat and the girl turn to look at.

"You know Shanks old man?" Straw Hat asked, the girl staring up at him with a guarded look. "I'm holding it for him."

"You came here to rescue your big brother?" He questioned.

"That's right."

He glared down at him. "Do you have the slightest idea what our forces are up against?" He lifted up his bisento and slammed it into the ground. "A squirt like you is gonna get slaughtered real easy."

The girl's eyes flashed as her Captain bowed his head.

"Shut up!" The brat yelled suddenly, glaring up at him furiously. "You don't even know me! And besides, I've got Skylar to have my back!"

The girl, Skylar, smiled at the brat and chuckled, presumably quite happy with the trust her Captain had in her abilities, whatever they were.

"You think one person can make a difference?"

The girl coughed into her hand, giving him a mild glare.

"Whitebeard-san, I thank you not to presume things about me. I am much stronger than I look." She said politely.

"This doesn't concern you, kid." He rumbled, looking at her again when she snorted. "What's so funny?"

She shook her head, her brat of a Captain also snickering. "Love, I have been alive long enough to see the End of the First World and the Birth of this one. So unless you are hiding something, then you don't have the right to call me a 'kid'."

He shot her a sharp look, which was only given a serene smile.

"Hey old man." The two of them looked at Straw Hat again, who was still glaring at him. "You wanna be King, don't you? Well you've gotta go through me first, got it!?"

The girl facepalmed.

* * *

"Dammit Luffy!" The Mage yelled at her Captain. "Wait for me! I can't move too far away from you, remember!?"

Luffy blinked, because honestly he had forgotten that. "ShiShiShiShi! My bad Skylar!"

The Mage sighed, now running beside him to get to Ace. "Do you want me to take care of those guys Captain?"

Luffy looked forward again and, seeing the group of Marine running at them, threw his arms back. "Gomu Gomu no Bazooka!" He yelled, scattering the Marines.

Skylar smirked, ripping off her necklace and flicking the stone. " **Colour Shift, Kaleidoscope!"** She called, the stone stopping and shifting colour as it went back around her throat.

The two Pirates kept running, Skylar coming up in front of Luffy when Kizaru raised his leg to kick them.

" **Light Magic; Light Shield!"** The Mage called, a golden dome coming up around the two of them just before the light hit them.

Everyone around stared at the giant explosion of light in horror, Ace in particular.

"Luffy!" He yelled, dread gripping his heart at the thought of his little brother dying because of him. But then the light died down and everyone could see the small golden dome, the Mage holding her hand to the inside of it and seemingly holding it up.

She put down her hand and the dome disappeared, allowing the two Pirates to continue running.

"WHAT THE HELL~!?" Was the collective yell everyone let out at the sight, completely dumbfounded as many gaped at the black haired girl.

Meanwhile, Boa Hancock was glaring at the woman running beside her beloved Luffy with hate, trying to set her on fire with her eyes. The golden eyed woman continued to dodge the various Marines around her, wanting to keep the fact she wasn't actually there a secret just a little while longer, even if she was pretty sure Sengoku already knew.

"JUST LEAVE LUFFY!" The older D screamed at his brother, drawing the eye of many. "You oughta know already! You and I are both Pirates! You should be sailing however you want! I have my own adventure, my own Nakama! A weakling like you coming to save me is humiliating! Why did you even come!?"

Skylar stared up at her Captain's brother, feeling both pity and amusement for the boy. Because honestly, hadn't he learned anything about Luffy?

"I am…" Luffy started, still running towards his brother with his Mage beside him. "Your brother!"

She smiled before her eyes harden and she leapt into the air, stone already blood red.

" **Power Magic; Energy Burst!"** She shouted, a red ring of energy shooting out from her body and throwing everyone in the immediate vicinity away from her and Luffy, landing besides her Captain and falling into step with him easily.

"Oh right." Kizaru mumbled, looking strangely sheepish all of a sudden. "I forgot. That girl can use Magic."

"WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU MENTION THIS EARLIER!?" Sengoku roared at him before pointing to the Mage. "Marines! Kill that girl at all cost!"

"Yeah, that won't work either." Kizaru drawled, making the Fleet Admiral whip around to stare at him in demand. "She's not really there. I fell right through her the last time I saw her, and I don't think this time is gonna be any different."

"WELL THEN WHERE IS SHE!?"

The Admiral shrugged. "How should I know?"

Sengoku let out a silent scream of frustration. "THEN HOW THE HELL DO WE STOP HER!?"

"Well last time she disappeared after saying she was almost out of energy, so I guess we'll just have to wait until then."

"WAIT!?" He screeched just as a yell of " **Water Magic; Saltwater Stream!"** echoed across the battlefield and a wave of water washed over Gekko Moria's zombies, purifying them because of the salt. "YOU WANT US TO WAIT WHEN SOMEONE CAPABLE OF USING ACTUAL _MAGIC_ IS RUNNING AROUND WITH STRAW HAT LUFFY!?"

"There's not much else we can do, is there?" Kizaru pointed out, surprisingly enough being reasonable. "It's not like we can actually hurt her or even touch her, so what choice do we have?"

Sengoku's mouth opened and closed a bunch of time, trying to come up with an answer but falling short.

"Skylar-san." Jinbei said gruffly, making the Mage look at him. "Let me take care of Moria so you can save your energy."

The Mage nodded, before looking up at the giant now standing over them with narrow eyes.

"I'm gonna crush them!" The giant yelled as Sengoku's voice rang over the battlefield, telling everyone present about Luffy and the fact his father was the Revolutionary Dragon.

Skylar just huffed as her necklace turned yellow. "I have no idea who this 'Dragon' is, nor do I care. He is in no way, shape or form my Captain and I like it that way! **Air Magic; Blade Hurricane!"**

The giant screamed in pain as the enchanted winds cut him up, falling to the ground not long after, the two Pirates already running again.

"We musn't let Straw Hat live!"

"Take him down with everything we have!"

"Ace!" Luffy yelled. "Say whatever the hell you want! I'm saving you, even if I die!"

The Mage beside him nodded.

* * *

' _This is gonna be a long battle.'_ She thought, pushing a group of Marines back with a wall of stone, already feeling slightly drained from using the Kaleidoscope. ' _I don't know if I'll be able to stay here the entire time. It's already by pure luck that this place is close enough to Sabaody that I could actually get here and I don't know if we'll stay that lucky.'_

Her face hardened as she ran, glancing at her for once serious Captain.

' _But.'_ Determination ran through her. ' _I do have one more trick I can use if I need to.'_

Even if she hoped she wouldn't have to, because it would mean leaving Luffy to fend for himself. And for some reason, the very thought made her heart clench.

* * *

Hi.

So, only two or three chapters left before I start on the sequel :) Hope everyone will want to read that as well.

See Ya - TheGirlyDJ


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